GeForce GTX 460 (OEM) vs GeForce GTX 870M

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 870M, which makes use of a 28 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 941 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a speed of 1000 MHz on this card. It features 1344 SPUs as well as 112 TAUs and 24 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 870M		110 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		150 Watts
	Difference: 40 Watts (36%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM) should perform a small bit faster than the GeForce GTX 870M in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		108800 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 870M		96000 MB/sec
	Difference: 12800 (13%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 870M is a lot (more or less 190%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 460 (OEM). (explain)

GeForce GTX 870M		105392 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		36400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 68992 (190%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 870M is a better choice, though only just barely. (explain)

GeForce GTX 870M		22584 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 (OEM)		20800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1784 (9%)

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: Bandwidth is the max amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.