GeForce GTX 280 vs GeForce GTX 660

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 660, which features a core clock speed of 980 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1502 MHz. It also uses a 192-bit bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 960 SPUs, 80 TAUs, and 24 ROPs.

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

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 660 should be a little bit faster than the GeForce GTX 280 overall. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 will be quite a bit (approximately 63%) better at 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

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 660 is the winner, by a large margin. (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 information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units 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 also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.