GeForce GTS 250 1GB vs GeForce GTX 1050 3GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 1050 3GB, which comes with core speeds of 1392 MHz on the GPU, and 1750 MHz on the 3072 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 768 SPUs as well as 48 TAUs and 24 Rasterization Operator 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

The GeForce GTX 1050 3GB should in theory perform much faster than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB overall. (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 a lot (about 41%) faster with regards to texture filtering 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

The GeForce GTX 1050 3GB is a lot (approximately 183%) better at FSAA than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB, and capable of handling higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (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: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.