GeForce GTS 250 1GB vs GeForce GTX 260 Core 216

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216, which uses a 65 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 576 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM works at a speed of 999 MHz on this model. It features 216 SPUs as well as 72 TAUs and 28 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		145 Watts
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		202 Watts
	Difference: 57 Watts (39%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		111888 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 41488 (59%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB will be a little bit (approximately 14%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		41472 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 5760 (14%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 is superior to the GeForce GTS 250 1GB, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		16128 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4320 (37%)

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 information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the 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 the video card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.