GeForce GTS 450 1GB vs GeForce GTX 280

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 280, which features a clock frequency of 602 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 1107 MHz. It also uses a 512-bit bus, and uses a 65 nm design. It is comprised of 240 SPUs, 80 Texture Address Units, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		106 Watts
GeForce GTX 280		236 Watts
	Difference: 130 Watts (123%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 280, in theory, should perform much faster than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		141696 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		57728 MB/sec
	Difference: 83968 (145%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 280 is quite a bit (about 92%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		48160 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		25056 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 23104 (92%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 280 is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		19264 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		12528 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 6736 (54%)

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 data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.