GeForce GTX 550 Ti vs GeForce GTX 560

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 560, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 810 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a speed of 1001 MHz on this specific model. It features 336 SPUs along with 56 TAUs and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

(No game benchmarks for this combination yet.)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 550 Ti		116 Watts
GeForce GTX 560		150 Watts
	Difference: 34 Watts (29%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 560 should be 30% faster than the GeForce GTX 550 Ti overall, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		128128 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 550 Ti		98496 MB/sec
	Difference: 29632 (30%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 should be a lot (more or less 58%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 550 Ti. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		45360 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 550 Ti		28800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 16560 (58%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 is a bit (about 20%) better at FSAA than the GeForce GTX 550 Ti, and also able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		25920 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 550 Ti		21600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4320 (20%)

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

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

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 one second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better 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 processed per second. This 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 video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes 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 of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.