GeForce GTS 260M vs GT 230

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Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the ranking1139not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation0.01no data
Power efficiency0.78no data
ArchitectureTesla (2006−2010)Tesla 2.0 (2007−2013)
GPU code nameG94BGT215
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Release date12 October 2009 (15 years ago)15 June 2009 (15 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$43.99 no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores4896
Core clock speed650 MHz550 MHz
Number of transistors505 million727 million
Manufacturing process technology55 nm40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)75 Watt38 Watt
Texture fill rate15.6017.60
Floating-point processing power0.156 TFLOPS0.264 TFLOPS
Gigaflopsno data396
ROPs168
TMUs2432

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Laptop sizeno datalarge
Bus supportno dataPCI-E 2.0
InterfacePCIe 2.0 x16PCIe 2.0 x16
Width1-slotno data
Supplementary power connectorsNoneno data
SLI options-+
MXM Typeno dataMXM 3.0 Type-B

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory typeGDDR3GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount512 MB1 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit128 Bit
Memory clock speed900 MHzUp to 2000 MHz
Memory bandwidth57.6 GB/s57.6 GB/s
Shared memory--

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display ConnectorsNo outputsHDMIVGADual Link DVIDisplayPortSingle Link DVILVDS
Maximum VGA resolutionno data2048x1536

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

Power managementno data8.0

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX11.1 (10_0)11.1 (10_1)
Shader Model4.04.1
OpenGL3.32.1
OpenCL1.11.1
VulkanN/AN/A
CUDA1.1+

Pros & cons summary


Recency 12 October 2009 15 June 2009
Maximum RAM amount 512 MB 1 GB
Chip lithography 55 nm 40 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 75 Watt 38 Watt

GT 230 has an age advantage of 3 months.

GTS 260M, on the other hand, has a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 37.5% more advanced lithography process, and 97.4% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between GeForce GT 230 and GeForce GTS 260M. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that GeForce GT 230 is a desktop card while GeForce GTS 260M is a notebook one.


Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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NVIDIA GeForce GT 230
GeForce GT 230
NVIDIA GeForce GTS 260M
GeForce GTS 260M

Comparisons with similar GPUs

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

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Questions & comments

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