In terms of overall gaming performance, the graphical capabilities of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 PNY 1GB OC Edition are noticeably better than the Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 v2.

The GTX 460 has a 189 MHz higher core clock speed but 16 fewer Texture Mapping Units than the GTX 260. The lower TMU count doesn't matter, though, as altogether the GTX 460 manages to provide 1.3 GTexel/s better texturing performance. This still holds weight but shader performance is generally more relevant, particularly since both of these GPUs support at least DirectX 10.

The GTX 460 has a 189 MHz higher core clock speed and 4 more Render Output Units than the GTX 260. This results in the GTX 460 providing 8.4 GPixel/s better pixeling performance. However, both GPUs support DirectX 9 or above, and pixeling performance is only really relevant when comparing older cards.

The GTX 460 was released over a year more recently than the GTX 260, and so the GTX 460 is likely to have better driver support, meaning it will be more optimized for running the latest games when compared to the GTX 260.

The GTX 460 has 128 MB more video memory than the GTX 260, so is likely to be slightly better at displaying game textures at higher resolutions. This is supported by the fact that the GTX 460 also has superior memory performance overall.

The GTX 460 has 6.5 GB/sec greater memory bandwidth than the GTX 260, which means that the memory performance of the GTX 460 is marginally better than the GTX 260.

The GeForce GTX 260 v2 has 216 Shader Processing Units and the GeForce GTX 460 PNY 1GB OC Edition has 336. However, the actual shader performance of the GTX 260 is 286 and the actual shader performance of the GTX 460 is 514. The GTX 460 having 228 better shader performance and an altogether better performance when taking into account other relevant data means that the GTX 460 delivers a slightly smoother and more efficient experience when processing graphical data than the GTX 260.

The GTX 460 transistor size technology is 25 nm (nanometers) smaller than the GTX 260. This means that the GTX 460 is expected to run slightly cooler and achieve higher clock frequencies than the GTX 260.

The GeForce GTX 260 v2 requires 182 Watts to run but there is no entry for the GeForce GTX 460 PNY 1GB OC Edition. We would recommend a PSU with at least 500 Watts for the GTX 260 and a PSU with at least 450 Watts for the GTX 460. The GTX 260 has been recommended a PSU with 50 Watts more than the GTX 460. The difference is significant enough that the GTX 260 may have a slight adverse affect on your yearly electricity bills in comparison to the GTX 460.