GeForce GTS 250 1GB vs GeForce GTX 660 Ti

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 660 Ti, which comes with a clock frequency of 915 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1500 MHz. It also features a 192-bit bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 1344 SPUs, 112 Texture Address Units, and 24 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		145 Watts
GeForce GTX 660 Ti		150 Watts
	Difference: 5 Watts (3%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 660 Ti should be 105% faster than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB overall, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660 Ti		144000 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 73600 (105%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 Ti is much (more or less 117%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660 Ti		102480 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		47232 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 55248 (117%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 Ti should be quite a bit (about 86%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB, and also capable of handling higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660 Ti		21960 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 10152 (86%)

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 maximum amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, it must 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 AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen 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 number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics 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 graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.