GeForce GTX 1050 3GB vs GeForce GTX 650

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 650, which comes with a clock speed of 1058 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1250 MHz. It also uses a 128-bit bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It features 384 SPUs, 32 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 650		64 Watts
GeForce GTX 1050 3GB		75 Watts
	Difference: 11 Watts (17%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 1050 3GB, in theory, should perform a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 650 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1050 3GB		86016 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 650		80000 MB/sec
	Difference: 6016 (8%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1050 3GB should be quite a bit (more or less 97%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 650. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1050 3GB		66816 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 650		33856 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 32960 (97%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1050 3GB will be quite a bit (more or less 97%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce GTX 650, and also able to handle higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1050 3GB		33408 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 650		16928 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 16480 (97%)

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: Bandwidth is the max amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, 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 maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.