GeForce GTX 260 vs GeForce GTX 470

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 470, which comes with a GPU core clock speed of 607 MHz, and 1280 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 837 MHz through a 320-bit bus. It also is comprised of 448 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 40 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 260		182 Watts
GeForce GTX 470		215 Watts
	Difference: 33 Watts (18%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 470 should in theory be a little bit faster than the GeForce GTX 260 in general. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 260 should be a bit (about 8%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 470. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260		36864 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 470		33992 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2872 (8%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 470 should be quite a bit (more or less 51%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce GTX 260, and also will be capable of handling higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		24280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260		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: Bandwidth is the max amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics 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 maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.