GeForce GTX 260 vs GeForce GTX 480

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 480, which has clock speeds of 700 MHz on the GPU, and 924 MHz on the 1536 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 480 SPUs as well as 60 TAUs and 48 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 260		182 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 68 Watts (37%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 480, in theory, should be a lot faster than the GeForce GTX 260 in general. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 should be a little bit (about 14%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 260. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 260		36864 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 5136 (14%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 is much (more or less 108%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 260, and able to handle higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260		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: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

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