GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 vs GeForce GTX 470

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 470, which features a GPU core clock speed of 607 MHz, and 1280 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 837 MHz through a 320-bit bus. It also is comprised of 448 SPUs, 56 Texture Address Units, and 40 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		202 Watts
GeForce GTX 470		215 Watts
	Difference: 13 Watts (6%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 470, in theory, should perform a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		133920 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		111888 MB/sec
	Difference: 22032 (20%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 should be a lot (about 22%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 470. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		41472 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 470		33992 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 7480 (22%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 470 is superior to the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		24280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		16128 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 8152 (51%)

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: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better 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 can be applied per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics 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 the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.