GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 vs GeForce GTX 460

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 460, which has GPU core speed of 675 MHz, and 768 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 900 MHz through a 192-bit bus. It also is made up of 336 Stream Processors, 56 TAUs, and 24 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

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

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 should be 30% faster than the GeForce GTX 460 overall, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		111888 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460		86400 MB/sec
	Difference: 25488 (30%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 is a little bit (about 10%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTX 460. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		41472 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460		37800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 3672 (10%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 is a small bit (approximately 0%) better at AA than the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216, and will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		16200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		16128 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 72 (0%)

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 data (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics 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 most pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.