GeForce GTS 450 1GB vs GeForce GTX 260

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 260, which has GPU clock speed of 576 MHz, and 896 MB of GDDR3 memory set to run at 999 MHz through a 448-bit bus. It also features 192 Stream Processors, 64 Texture Address Units, and 28 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 260		182 Watts
	Difference: 76 Watts (72%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 260 should perform a lot faster than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260		111888 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		57728 MB/sec
	Difference: 54160 (94%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 260 is a lot (about 47%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260		36864 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		25056 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 11808 (47%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 260 is superior to the GeForce GTS 450 1GB, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260		16128 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		12528 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3600 (29%)

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 data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster 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 is worked out by multiplying the total amount of 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 processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.