GeForce GTS 250 512MB vs GeForce GTX 550 Ti

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 550 Ti, which has a clock frequency of 900 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1026 MHz. It also makes use of a 192-bit bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It features 192 SPUs, 32 Texture Address Units, and 24 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 550 Ti		116 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		145 Watts
	Difference: 29 Watts (25%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 550 Ti should theoretically be much superior to the GeForce GTS 250 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 550 Ti		98496 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 28096 (40%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 512MB will be much (more or less 64%) better at AF than the GeForce GTX 550 Ti. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 550 Ti		28800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 18432 (64%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 550 Ti is superior to the GeForce GTS 250 512MB, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 550 Ti		21600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9792 (83%)

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 (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to 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 bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.