GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm vs GeForce GTX 295

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 295, which makes use of a 55 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 576 MHz. The GDDR3 memory runs at a speed of 999 MHz on this model. It features 240 SPUs along with 80 TAUs and 28 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		171 Watts
GeForce GTX 295		289 Watts
	Difference: 118 Watts (69%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 295 should theoretically be much superior to the GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 295		223776 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		111888 MB/sec
	Difference: 111888 (100%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 295 should be much (more or less 122%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm. (explain)

GeForce GTX 295		92160 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		41472 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 50688 (122%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 295 is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 295		32256 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		16128 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 16128 (100%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the max amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

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