GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 vs GeForce GTX 660

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 660, which comes with core clock 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

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 660		140 Watts
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		202 Watts
	Difference: 62 Watts (44%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 660 should theoretically be much faster than the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		144192 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		111888 MB/sec
	Difference: 32304 (29%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 is quite a bit (approximately 89%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		78400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		41472 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 36928 (89%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 660 is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		23520 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		16128 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 7392 (46%)

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 transported past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This number 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 card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.