GeForce GTS 250 1GB vs GeForce GTX 460 SE

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 460 SE, which comes with a core clock speed of 650 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 850 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It features 288 SPUs, 48 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 250 1GB		145 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 SE		150 Watts
	Difference: 5 Watts (3%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 460 SE should in theory be much better than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		108800 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 38400 (55%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB is much (more or less 51%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 460 SE. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		31200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 16032 (51%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 SE should be much (more or less 76%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB, and should be able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		20800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		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: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the better 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.