GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 vs GeForce GTX 460 2GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 460 2GB, which comes with a core clock speed of 675 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 900 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 336 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		160 Watts
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		202 Watts
	Difference: 42 Watts (26%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTX 460 2GB should perform a little bit faster than the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		115200 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		111888 MB/sec
	Difference: 3312 (3%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 will be a little bit (about 10%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 460 2GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		41472 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 3672 (10%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 2GB is superior to the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		16128 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5472 (34%)

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 (measured in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.