GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 vs GeForce GTX 470

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 470, which comes with GPU core speed of 607 MHz, and 1280 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 837 MHz through a 320-bit bus. It also is made up of 448 Stream Processors, 56 TAUs, and 40 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		202 Watts
GeForce GTX 470		215 Watts
	Difference: 13 Watts (6%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 470 will be 20% faster than the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 overall, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		133920 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		111888 MB/sec
	Difference: 22032 (20%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 should be much (approximately 22%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTX 470. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		41472 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 470		33992 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 7480 (22%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 470 will be much (more or less 51%) better at FSAA than the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216, and should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		24280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		16128 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 8152 (51%)

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 max amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.