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GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 vs GeForce GTX 460 SE

Intro

The GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 features a GPU core speed of 576 MHz, and the 896 MB of GDDR3 memory is set to run at 999 MHz through a 448-bit bus. It also is made up of 216 SPUs, 72 TAUs, and 28 Raster Operation Units.

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 460 SE, which features core clock speeds of 650 MHz on the GPU, and 850 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 288 SPUs along with 48 Texture Address Units and 32 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		150 Watts
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		202 Watts
	Difference: 52 Watts (35%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 should theoretically be a small bit superior to the GeForce GTX 460 SE overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		111888 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		108800 MB/sec
	Difference: 3088 (3%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 should be quite a bit (about 33%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTX 460 SE. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		41472 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		31200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 10272 (33%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 SE is superior to the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		20800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		16128 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4672 (29%)

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

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GeForce GTX 260 Core 216

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GeForce GTX 460 SE

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Specifications

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Model	GeForce GTX 260 Core 216	GeForce GTX 460 SE
Manufacturer	nVidia	nVidia
Year	September 16, 2008	November 2010
Code Name	G200	GF104
Memory	896 MB	1024 MB
Core Speed	576 MHz	650 MHz
Memory Speed	1998 MHz	3400 MHz
Power (Max TDP)	202 watts	150 watts
Bandwidth	111888 MB/sec	108800 MB/sec
Texel Rate	41472 Mtexels/sec	31200 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate	16128 Mpixels/sec	20800 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders	216	288
Texture Mapping Units	72	48
Render Output Units	28	32
Bus Type	GDDR3	GDDR5
Bus Width	448-bit	256-bit
Fab Process	65 nm	40 nm
Transistors	1400 million	1950 million
Bus	PCIe x16 2.0	PCIe x16
DirectX Version	DirectX 10	DirectX 11
OpenGL Version	OpenGL 3.1	OpenGL 4.1

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the largest amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred over 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 type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

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

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