GeForce GTX 260 vs GeForce GTX 860M

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 860M, which uses a 28 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 797 MHz. The GDDR5 memory is set to run at a frequency of 1000 MHz on this particular card. It features 1152 SPUs along with 96 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 860M		45 Watts
GeForce GTX 260		182 Watts
	Difference: 137 Watts (304%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 260 should perform a lot faster than the GeForce GTX 860M overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260		111888 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 860M		64000 MB/sec
	Difference: 47888 (75%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 860M is much (approximately 108%) better at AF than the GeForce GTX 260. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		76512 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 260		36864 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 39648 (108%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 260 should be much (more or less 26%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce GTX 860M, and also should be able to handle higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260		16128 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 860M		12752 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3376 (26%)

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 (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.