GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 vs GeForce GTX 560 Ti

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 560 Ti, which features a clock frequency of 822 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1002 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It features 384 SPUs, 64 Texture Address Units, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

(No game benchmarks for this combination yet.)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 560 Ti		170 Watts
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		202 Watts
	Difference: 32 Watts (19%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 560 Ti will be 15% quicker than the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 overall, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560 Ti		128256 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		111888 MB/sec
	Difference: 16368 (15%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 Ti should be much (approximately 27%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560 Ti		52608 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		41472 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 11136 (27%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 Ti will be much (more or less 63%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216, and able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560 Ti		26304 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		16128 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 10176 (63%)

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 largest amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This number 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 texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.