GeForce GTX 260 vs GeForce GTX 470

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 470, which has core clock speeds of 607 MHz on the GPU, and 837 MHz on the 1280 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 448 SPUs as well as 56 TAUs and 40 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 260		182 Watts
GeForce GTX 470		215 Watts
	Difference: 33 Watts (18%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 470 should theoretically perform a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 260 in general. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 260 will be a bit (approximately 8%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 470. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260		36864 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 470		33992 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2872 (8%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 470 will be quite a bit (approximately 51%) better at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 260, and able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		24280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260		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 maximum amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core 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 applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core 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 output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.