GeForce GTX 275 vs GeForce GTX 660

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 660, which uses a 28 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 980 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM works at a frequency of 1502 MHz on this specific model. It features 960 SPUs as well as 80 TAUs and 24 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 660		140 Watts
GeForce GTX 275		219 Watts
	Difference: 79 Watts (56%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 660 should in theory be a little bit better than the GeForce GTX 275 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		144192 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 275		127008 MB/sec
	Difference: 17184 (14%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 should be a lot (approximately 55%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 275. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		78400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 275		50640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 27760 (55%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 660 is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		23520 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 275		17724 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5796 (33%)

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 across the external memory interface in a second. The number is 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 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory per 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 - aka 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, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.