GeForce GTS 250 512MB vs GeForce GTX 480

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 480, which has a clock frequency of 700 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 924 MHz. It also makes use of a 384-bit memory bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is made up of 480 SPUs, 60 Texture Address Units, and 48 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		145 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 105 Watts (72%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 480, in theory, should perform much faster than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 107008 (152%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 512MB should be a small bit (more or less 12%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 480. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 5232 (12%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 480 is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 21792 (185%)

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 max amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock 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 processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on lots of 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.