GeForce GTS 250 512MB vs GeForce GTX 590

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 590, which comes with a core clock speed of 607 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 855 MHz. It also makes use of a 384-bit memory bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It features 512 SPUs, 64 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 590		365 Watts
	Difference: 220 Watts (152%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 590 will be 366% faster than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB in general, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		328320 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 257920 (366%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 590 should be a lot (more or less 64%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		77696 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		47232 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 30464 (64%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 590 is superior to the GeForce GTS 250 512MB, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		58272 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 46464 (393%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. 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 output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.