GeForce GTS 250 512MB vs GeForce GTX 650

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 650, which uses a 28 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 1058 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a frequency of 1250 MHz on this specific model. It features 384 SPUs along with 32 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 650		64 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		145 Watts
	Difference: 81 Watts (127%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 650 should perform a bit faster than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 650		80000 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 9600 (14%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 512MB is much (more or less 40%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 650. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 650		33856 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 13376 (40%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 650 is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 650		16928 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5120 (43%)

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 max amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.