GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm vs GeForce GTX 560 Ti

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 560 Ti, which comes with clock speeds of 822 MHz on the GPU, and 1002 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 384 SPUs as well as 64 TAUs and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 560 Ti		170 Watts
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		171 Watts
	Difference: 1 Watts (1%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 560 Ti should be just a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560 Ti		128256 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		111888 MB/sec
	Difference: 16368 (15%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 Ti will be much (approximately 27%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560 Ti		52608 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		41472 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 11136 (27%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 560 Ti is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560 Ti		26304 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		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: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

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