GeForce GTS 250 1GB vs GeForce GTX 580

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 580, which features a clock frequency of 772 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1002 MHz. It also makes use of a 384-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is made up of 512 SPUs, 64 TAUs, and 48 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		145 Watts
GeForce GTX 580		244 Watts
	Difference: 99 Watts (68%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 580 should perform a lot faster than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		192384 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 121984 (173%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 should be a little bit (more or less 5%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		49408 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		47232 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2176 (5%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 580 is superior to the GeForce GTS 250 1GB, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 25248 (214%)

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 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 it uses DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses 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, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core 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 in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.