GeForce GTS 250 512MB vs GeForce GTX 1050 3GB

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 1050 3GB, which has clock speeds of 1392 MHz on the GPU, and 1750 MHz on the 3072 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 768 SPUs as well as 48 TAUs and 24 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 1050 3GB		75 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		145 Watts
	Difference: 70 Watts (93%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 1050 3GB should theoretically be much faster than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1050 3GB		86016 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 15616 (22%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1050 3GB should be much (more or less 41%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1050 3GB		66816 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		47232 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 19584 (41%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 1050 3GB is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1050 3GB		33408 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 21600 (183%)

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 max amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core 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 fill rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.