GeForce GTX 260 vs GeForce GTX 660

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 660, which has GPU clock speed of 980 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1502 MHz through a 192-bit bus. It also is comprised of 960 SPUs, 80 TAUs, and 24 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 660		140 Watts
GeForce GTX 260		182 Watts
	Difference: 42 Watts (30%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 660 should in theory be quite a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 260 overall. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 should be quite a bit (about 113%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 260. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		78400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 260		36864 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 41536 (113%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 will be much (approximately 46%) better at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 260, and should be able to handle higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		23520 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260		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 max amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

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