GeForce GTS 250 1GB vs GeForce GTX 465

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 465, which comes with a core clock speed of 607 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 802 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 352 SPUs, 44 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		145 Watts
GeForce GTX 465		200 Watts
	Difference: 55 Watts (38%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 465 should be 46% faster than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB overall, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 465		102592 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 32192 (46%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB is much (more or less 77%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTX 465. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 465		26708 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 20524 (77%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 465 is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 465		19424 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 7616 (64%)

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 data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

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