GeForce GTX 260 vs GeForce GTX 570

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 570, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 732 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a speed of 950 MHz on this specific card. It features 480 SPUs along with 60 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 570		219 Watts
	Difference: 37 Watts (20%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 570 is 36% quicker than the GeForce GTX 260 overall, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 570		152000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 260		111888 MB/sec
	Difference: 40112 (36%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 570 is a small bit (about 19%) better at AF than the GeForce GTX 260. (explain)

GeForce GTX 570		43920 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 260		36864 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 7056 (19%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 570 should be a lot (about 82%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 260, and will be able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 570		29280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260		16128 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 13152 (82%)

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 data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, 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 are applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write 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 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 also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.