GeForce GTX 1050 3GB vs GeForce GTX 260

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 260, which comes with a GPU core clock speed of 576 MHz, and 896 MB of GDDR3 RAM set to run at 999 MHz through a 448-bit bus. It also is made up of 192 Stream Processors, 64 Texture Address Units, and 28 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 1050 3GB		75 Watts
GeForce GTX 260		182 Watts
	Difference: 107 Watts (143%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 260 should perform much faster than the GeForce GTX 1050 3GB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260		111888 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 1050 3GB		86016 MB/sec
	Difference: 25872 (30%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1050 3GB will be a lot (more or less 81%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTX 260. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1050 3GB		66816 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 260		36864 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 29952 (81%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 1050 3GB is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1050 3GB		33408 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260		16128 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 17280 (107%)

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 megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock 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 applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends 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 max fill rate.