GeForce GTX 295 vs GeForce GTX 460 2GB

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 460 2GB, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 675 MHz. The GDDR5 memory is set to run at a frequency of 900 MHz on this particular model. It features 336 SPUs along with 56 Texture Address Units and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		160 Watts
GeForce GTX 295		289 Watts
	Difference: 129 Watts (81%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 295 should in theory be a lot faster than the GeForce GTX 460 2GB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 295		223776 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		115200 MB/sec
	Difference: 108576 (94%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 295 will be much (about 144%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 460 2GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 295		92160 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 54360 (144%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 295 is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 295		32256 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 10656 (49%)

Please note that the above 'benchmarks' are all just theoretical - the results were calculated based on the card's specifications, and real-world performance may (and probably will) vary at least a bit.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.