GeForce GTS 250 512MB vs GeForce GTX 660

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 660, which makes use of a 28 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 980 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM works at a frequency of 1502 MHz on this specific model. It features 960 SPUs as well as 80 Texture Address Units and 24 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 660		140 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		145 Watts
	Difference: 5 Watts (4%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 660 will be 105% faster than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB overall, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		144192 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 73792 (105%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 should be a lot (more or less 66%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		78400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		47232 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 31168 (66%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 660 is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		23520 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 11712 (99%)

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 maximum amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core 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 output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.