GeForce GTS 250 1GB vs GeForce GTX 260

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 260, which comes with a core clock speed of 576 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 999 MHz. It also makes use of a 448-bit bus, and uses a 65 nm design. It is made up of 192 SPUs, 64 TAUs, and 28 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		145 Watts
GeForce GTX 260		182 Watts
	Difference: 37 Watts (26%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 260 should in theory perform much faster than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB overall. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB is quite a bit (more or less 28%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTX 260. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 260		36864 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 10368 (28%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 260 should be much (about 37%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB, and will be capable of handling higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260		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: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.