GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm vs GeForce GTX 980

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 980, which makes use of a 28 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 1126 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM works at a speed of 1750 MHz on this model. It features 2048 SPUs as well as 128 TAUs and 64 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 980		165 Watts
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		171 Watts
	Difference: 6 Watts (4%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 980 should in theory be much better than the GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		224000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		111888 MB/sec
	Difference: 112112 (100%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 980 is much (about 248%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		144128 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		41472 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 102656 (248%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 980 is the winner, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		72064 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		16128 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 55936 (347%)

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 largest amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses 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 high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.