GeForce GTS 250 1GB vs Radeon HD 7950

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 7950, which has a core clock speed of 800 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1250 MHz. It also uses a 384-bit bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It features 1792 SPUs, 112 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		145 Watts
Radeon HD 7950		200 Watts
	Difference: 55 Watts (38%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Radeon HD 7950 should theoretically be much better than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 7950		240000 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 169600 (241%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 7950 should be a lot (more or less 90%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB. (explain)

Radeon HD 7950		89600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		47232 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 42368 (90%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the Radeon HD 7950 is superior to the GeForce GTS 250 1GB, by far. (explain)

Radeon HD 7950		25600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 13792 (117%)

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 maximum amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the 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 the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends 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.