GeForce GTX 460 1GB vs GeForce GTX 870M

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 870M, which has a clock frequency of 941 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1000 MHz. It also uses a 192-bit bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It features 1344 SPUs, 112 TAUs, and 24 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 870M		110 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		160 Watts
	Difference: 50 Watts (45%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 460 1GB, in theory, should perform a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 870M in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		115200 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 870M		96000 MB/sec
	Difference: 19200 (20%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 870M should be a lot (about 179%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 460 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 870M		105392 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 67592 (179%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 870M is a better choice, though not by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 870M		22584 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 984 (5%)

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.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.