GeForce GTX 260 vs GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm, which has a core clock speed of 576 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 999 MHz. It also uses a 448-bit bus, and uses a 55 nm design. It features 216 SPUs, 72 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 260 216SP 55 nm		36 FPS
GeForce GTX 260		32 FPS
	Difference: 4 FPS (13%)

Battlefield Bad Company 2

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

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		32 FPS
GeForce GTX 260		31 FPS
	Difference: 1 FPS (3%)

Fallout 3

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

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		76 FPS
GeForce GTX 260		74 FPS
	Difference: 2 FPS (3%)

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 260 216SP 55 nm		56 FPS
GeForce GTX 260		53 FPS
	Difference: 3 FPS (6%)

Left4Dead

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

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		78 FPS
GeForce GTX 260		74 FPS
	Difference: 4 FPS (5%)

Left4Dead 2

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

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		74 FPS
GeForce GTX 260		69 FPS
	Difference: 5 FPS (7%)

Mass Effect 2

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

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		94 FPS
GeForce GTX 260		91 FPS
	Difference: 3 FPS (3%)

Supreme Commander 2

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

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		36 FPS
GeForce GTX 260		34 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 260		24 FPS
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		24 FPS
	Difference: 0 FPS (0%)

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 260 216SP 55 nm		50 FPS
GeForce GTX 260		47 FPS
	Difference: 3 FPS (6%)

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GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm wins

(Based entirely on the benchmarks listed above)

When combining all game benchmark scores on this page together, the GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm wins overall, by 27 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 260 216SP 55 nm		556 FPS
GeForce GTX 260		529 FPS
	Difference: 27 FPS (5%)

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		171 Watts
GeForce GTX 260		182 Watts
	Difference: 11 Watts (6%)

Memory Bandwidth

Both cards have the exact same memory bandwidth, so theoretically they should perform exactly the same. (explain)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm will be just a bit (more or less 13%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 260. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		41472 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 260		36864 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 4608 (13%)

Pixel Rate

Both cards have exactly the same pixel fill rate, so theoretically they should be equally good at at full screen anti-aliasing, and be able to handle the same resolutions. (explain)

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 max amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the 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 most pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output 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 get to the maximum fill rate.