GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm vs GeForce GTX 470

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 470, which comes with 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 features 448 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 40 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		171 Watts
GeForce GTX 470		215 Watts
	Difference: 44 Watts (26%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 470 should in theory perform just a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		133920 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		111888 MB/sec
	Difference: 22032 (20%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm should be quite a bit (approximately 22%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 470. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		41472 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 470		33992 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 7480 (22%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 470 is superior to the GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		24280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		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 largest amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster 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 are processed in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount 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 applied per second.

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