GeForce GT 230 vs GeForce GTX 660

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 660, which comes with a clock frequency of 980 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1502 MHz. It also uses a 192-bit memory bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 960 SPUs, 80 TAUs, and 24 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 230		65 Watts
GeForce GTX 660		140 Watts
	Difference: 75 Watts (115%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 660 will be 276% faster than the GeForce GT 230 overall, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		144192 MB/sec
GeForce GT 230		38400 MB/sec
	Difference: 105792 (276%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 should be quite a bit (about 791%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 230. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		78400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 230		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 69600 (791%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 is a lot (about 435%) better at FSAA than the GeForce GT 230, and also able to handle higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		23520 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 230		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 19120 (435%)

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 maximum amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better 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 graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.