GeForce GTS 250 1GB vs GeForce GTX 1050 3GB

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 1050 3GB, which comes with a core clock speed of 1392 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1750 MHz. It also uses a 96-bit memory bus, and uses a 14 nm design. It features 768 SPUs, 48 TAUs, and 24 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 1050 3GB		75 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		145 Watts
	Difference: 70 Watts (93%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 1050 3GB will be 22% faster than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB in general, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1050 3GB		86016 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 15616 (22%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1050 3GB should be quite a bit (about 41%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1050 3GB		66816 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		47232 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 19584 (41%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 1050 3GB is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1050 3GB		33408 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 21600 (183%)

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 data (counted in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's 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 per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock 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 in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.