GeForce GTS 250 512MB vs Radeon R7 260X

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon R7 260X, which features a clock speed of 1100 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1625 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It features 896 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon R7 260X		115 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		145 Watts
	Difference: 30 Watts (26%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon R7 260X will be 48% faster than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB overall, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

Radeon R7 260X		104000 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 33600 (48%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R7 260X is a lot (approximately 30%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB. (explain)

Radeon R7 260X		61600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		47232 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 14368 (30%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R7 260X is quite a bit (about 49%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB, and also will be able to handle higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

Radeon R7 260X		17600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5792 (49%)

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 data (counted in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. 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 applied in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.