GeForce GTS 250 1GB vs GeForce GTX 590

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 590, which features a core clock frequency of 607 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 855 MHz. It also features a 384-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is made up of 512 SPUs, 64 Texture Address Units, 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 590		365 Watts
	Difference: 220 Watts (152%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 590 should theoretically perform much faster than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		328320 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 257920 (366%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 590 will be a lot (about 64%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		77696 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		47232 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 30464 (64%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 590 should be much (more or less 393%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB, and also capable of handling higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 590		58272 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 46464 (393%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster 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 per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better 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 per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs 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 output rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.