GeForce GTS 250 1GB vs GeForce GTX 480

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 480, which features GPU clock speed of 700 MHz, and 1536 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 924 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also is comprised of 480 SPUs, 60 TAUs, and 48 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 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 105 Watts (72%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 480 should be 152% quicker than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB in general, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 107008 (152%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB will be a little bit (about 12%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 480. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 5232 (12%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 480 is the winner, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		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: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card 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 per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends 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 max fill rate.