GeForce GTS 250 1GB vs GeForce GTX 460

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 460, which features core clock speeds of 675 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 768 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 336 SPUs along with 56 TAUs and 24 ROPs.

Avatar

Settings:	Ultra High Quality
AA:	8x
AF:	none
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 460		48 FPS
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		31 FPS
	Difference: 17 FPS (55%)

Battlefield Bad Company 2

Settings:	High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 460		35 FPS
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		25 FPS
	Difference: 10 FPS (40%)

Left4Dead 2

Settings:	Very High
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 460		77 FPS
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		58 FPS
	Difference: 19 FPS (33%)

Mass Effect 2

Settings:	Maximum Quality
AA:	none
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 460		91 FPS
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		70 FPS
	Difference: 21 FPS (30%)

Supreme Commander 2

Settings:	High
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 460		75 FPS
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		31 FPS
	Difference: 44 FPS (142%)

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GeForce GTX 460 wins

(Based entirely on the benchmarks listed above)

When combining all game benchmark scores on this page together, the GeForce GTX 460 wins overall, by 111 FPS. Please note that we do not have the results of every benchmark ever done for these cards, so the results may differ wildly in different games.

GeForce GTX 460		326 FPS
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		215 FPS
	Difference: 111 FPS (52%)

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		145 Watts
GeForce GTX 460		150 Watts
	Difference: 5 Watts (3%)

Memory Bandwidth

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

GeForce GTX 460		86400 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 16000 (23%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB is quite a bit (about 25%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 460. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460		37800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 9432 (25%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 will be quite a bit (more or less 37%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB, and able to handle higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		16200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4392 (37%)

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 largest amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

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