GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 vs GeForce GTX 960

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 960, which features a clock frequency of 1127 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1750 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit memory bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is made up of 1024 SPUs, 64 Texture Address Units, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 960		120 Watts
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		202 Watts
	Difference: 82 Watts (68%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 960 will be 0% quicker than the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 in general, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		112000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		111888 MB/sec
	Difference: 112 (0%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960 is a lot (about 74%) better at AF than the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		72128 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		41472 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 30656 (74%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 960 is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		36064 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		16128 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 19936 (124%)

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 max amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This number is worked out 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 applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the clock 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 fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.