GeForce GT 1030 vs GeForce GTX 260

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 260, which has clock speeds of 576 MHz on the GPU, and 999 MHz on the 896 MB of GDDR3 memory. It features 192 SPUs as well as 64 Texture Address Units and 28 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 1030		30 Watts
GeForce GTX 260		182 Watts
	Difference: 152 Watts (507%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 260 should be 128% faster than the GeForce GT 1030 in general, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260		111888 MB/sec
GeForce GT 1030		49152 MB/sec
	Difference: 62736 (128%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 1030 should be a small bit (approximately 10%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTX 260. (explain)

GeForce GT 1030		40480 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 260		36864 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 3616 (10%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GT 1030 is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GT 1030		20240 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260		16128 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4112 (25%)

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 largest amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number 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 filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.