GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 vs GeForce GTX 470

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 470, which features a clock frequency of 607 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 837 MHz. It also uses a 320-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is made up of 448 SPUs, 56 Texture Address Units, and 40 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		202 Watts
GeForce GTX 470		215 Watts
	Difference: 13 Watts (6%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 470 should be 20% faster than the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 overall, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		133920 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		111888 MB/sec
	Difference: 22032 (20%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 is a lot (more or less 22%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 470. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		41472 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 470		33992 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 7480 (22%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 470 will be a lot (about 51%) better at AA than the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216, and also will be able to handle higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		24280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		16128 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 8152 (51%)

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 largest amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core 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 in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.