GeForce GTX 280 vs GeForce GTX 660

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 660, which has core speeds of 980 MHz on the GPU, and 1502 MHz on the 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 960 SPUs along with 80 Texture Address Units and 24 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 660		140 Watts
GeForce GTX 280		236 Watts
	Difference: 96 Watts (69%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 660 should perform just a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 280 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		144192 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 280		141696 MB/sec
	Difference: 2496 (2%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 is a lot (approximately 63%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 280. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		78400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 280		48160 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 30240 (63%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 will be quite a bit (about 22%) better at AA than the GeForce GTX 280, and also capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		23520 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 280		19264 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4256 (22%)

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 largest amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If 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 higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.