GeForce GTS 250 512MB vs GeForce GTX 560 Ti

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 560 Ti, which features a clock speed of 822 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1002 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 384 SPUs, 64 Texture Address Units, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		145 Watts
GeForce GTX 560 Ti		170 Watts
	Difference: 25 Watts (17%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 560 Ti should in theory be quite a bit faster than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560 Ti		128256 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 57856 (82%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 Ti is just a bit (approximately 11%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560 Ti		52608 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		47232 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 5376 (11%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 560 Ti is superior to the GeForce GTS 250 512MB, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560 Ti		26304 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 14496 (123%)

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 information (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR memory, it should 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 higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the clock 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 rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.