GeForce GTS 250 512MB vs GeForce GTS 450

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTS 450, which features a clock speed of 783 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 902 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 192 SPUs, 32 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 450		106 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		145 Watts
	Difference: 39 Watts (37%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTS 250 512MB should in theory perform a lot faster than the GeForce GTS 450 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		70400 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 450		57728 MB/sec
	Difference: 12672 (22%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 512MB will be much (about 89%) better at AF than the GeForce GTS 450. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 450		25056 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 22176 (89%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTS 450 will be a small bit (about 6%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB, and also should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450		12528 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 720 (6%)

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 maximum amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.