GeForce GT 1030 vs GeForce GTS 250 1GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTS 250 1GB, which features a clock frequency of 738 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 1100 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 65/55 nm design. It is comprised of 128 SPUs, 64 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 1030		30 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		145 Watts
	Difference: 115 Watts (383%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB should theoretically perform a lot faster than the GeForce GT 1030 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		70400 MB/sec
GeForce GT 1030		49152 MB/sec
	Difference: 21248 (43%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB is a small bit (approximately 17%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 1030. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 1030		40480 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 6752 (17%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 1030 should be a lot (more or less 71%) better at FSAA than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB, and capable of handling higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GT 1030		20240 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 8432 (71%)

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 largest amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core 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 in one second.

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