GeForce GTS 250 512MB vs GeForce GTX 470

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 470, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 607 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM works at a frequency of 837 MHz on this specific model. It features 448 SPUs as well as 56 Texture Address Units and 40 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		145 Watts
GeForce GTX 470		215 Watts
	Difference: 70 Watts (48%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 470 should theoretically be much faster than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		133920 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 63520 (90%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 512MB is quite a bit (more or less 39%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 470. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 470		33992 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 13240 (39%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 470 is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		24280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 12472 (106%)

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 moved past the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units 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 per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.