GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm vs GeForce GTX 275

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 275, which has core clock speeds of 633 MHz on the GPU, and 1134 MHz on the 896 MB of GDDR3 memory. It features 240 SPUs as well as 80 TAUs and 28 ROPs.

Avatar

Settings:	Ultra High Quality
AA:	8x
AF:	none
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 275		38 FPS
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		36 FPS
	Difference: 2 FPS (6%)

Battlefield Bad Company 2

Settings:	High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 275		39 FPS
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		32 FPS
	Difference: 7 FPS (22%)

Fallout 3

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 275		61 FPS
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		57 FPS
	Difference: 4 FPS (7%)

Fallout 3

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1680x1050
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Charts Test Rig (Source)

GeForce GTX 275		86 FPS
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		76 FPS
	Difference: 10 FPS (13%)

Far Cry 2

Settings:	Very High Qualty
AA:	none
AF:	none
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Intel Core i7-920,3 x 2 GB Ram,Windows Vista Ultimate 32 Bit SP1 (Source)

GeForce GTX 275		64 FPS
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		56 FPS
	Difference: 8 FPS (14%)

Left4Dead

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 275		74 FPS
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		65 FPS
	Difference: 9 FPS (14%)

Left4Dead

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Charts Test Rig (Source)

GeForce GTX 275		90 FPS
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		78 FPS
	Difference: 12 FPS (15%)

Left4Dead 2

Settings:	Very High
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 275		85 FPS
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		74 FPS
	Difference: 11 FPS (15%)

Mass Effect 2

Settings:	Maximum Quality
AA:	none
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 275		108 FPS
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		94 FPS
	Difference: 14 FPS (15%)

Supreme Commander 2

Settings:	High
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 275		38 FPS
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		36 FPS
	Difference: 2 FPS (6%)

Tom Clancy's Endwar

Settings:	High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 275		28 FPS
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		24 FPS
	Difference: 4 FPS (17%)

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X

Settings:	High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1680x1050
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Charts Test Rig (Source)

GeForce GTX 275		67 FPS
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		50 FPS
	Difference: 17 FPS (34%)

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GeForce GTX 275 wins

(Based entirely on the benchmarks listed above)

When combining all game benchmark scores on this page together, the GeForce GTX 275 wins overall, by 100 FPS. Please note that we do not have the results of every benchmark ever done for these cards, so the results may differ wildly in different games.

GeForce GTX 275		778 FPS
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		678 FPS
	Difference: 100 FPS (15%)

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		171 Watts
GeForce GTX 275		219 Watts
	Difference: 48 Watts (28%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 275, in theory, should be a small bit faster than the GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 275		127008 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		111888 MB/sec
	Difference: 15120 (14%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 275 should be a lot (about 22%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm. (explain)

GeForce GTX 275		50640 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		41472 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 9168 (22%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 275 will be a bit (more or less 10%) better at AA than the GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm, and also should be able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 275		17724 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		16128 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1596 (10%)

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 maximum amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount 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 speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.