GeForce GTS 250 512MB vs Radeon R9 270X

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon R9 270X, which uses a 28 nm design. AMD has clocked the core frequency at 1000 MHz. The GDDR5 memory is set to run at a speed of 1400 MHz on this specific card. It features 1280 SPUs as well as 80 TAUs and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		145 Watts
Radeon R9 270X		180 Watts
	Difference: 35 Watts (24%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon R9 270X, in theory, should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB in general. (explain)

Radeon R9 270X		179200 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 108800 (155%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 270X should be a lot (about 69%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB. (explain)

Radeon R9 270X		80000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		47232 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 32768 (69%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 270X will be quite a bit (approximately 171%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB, and will be able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

Radeon R9 270X		32000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 20192 (171%)

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 transferred past the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it 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 texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka 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, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.