GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm vs GeForce GTX 480

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 480, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 700 MHz. The GDDR5 memory is set to run at a speed of 924 MHz on this model. It features 480 SPUs along with 60 Texture Address Units and 48 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		171 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 79 Watts (46%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 480 should theoretically be quite a bit better than the GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		111888 MB/sec
	Difference: 65520 (59%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 is a little bit (more or less 1%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		41472 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 528 (1%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 should be quite a bit (more or less 108%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm, and also will be able to handle higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		16128 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 17472 (108%)

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 (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.