GeForce GTS 250 512MB vs GeForce GTX 460 SE

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 460 SE, which has a GPU core clock speed of 650 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 850 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 288 Stream Processors, 48 Texture Address Units, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		145 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 SE		150 Watts
	Difference: 5 Watts (3%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 460 SE, in theory, should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		108800 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 38400 (55%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 512MB is a lot (more or less 51%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTX 460 SE. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		31200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 16032 (51%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 SE is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		20800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 8992 (76%)

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 moved across the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the 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 maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.