GeForce GTX 280 vs GeForce GTX 650

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 650, which comes with GPU clock speed of 1058 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 1250 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is comprised of 384 SPUs, 32 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 650		64 Watts
GeForce GTX 280		236 Watts
	Difference: 172 Watts (269%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTX 280 should perform much faster than the GeForce GTX 650 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		141696 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 650		80000 MB/sec
	Difference: 61696 (77%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 280 will be much (approximately 42%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTX 650. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		48160 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 650		33856 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 14304 (42%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 280 is the winner, though only just barely. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		19264 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 650		16928 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2336 (14%)

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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, 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 per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at 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 that the graphics chip could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called 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, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.