GeForce GTS 250 1GB vs GeForce GTX 970

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 970, which comes with a clock speed of 1050 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1750 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 1664 SPUs, 104 TAUs, and 64 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Both cards have the same power consumption.

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 970 should in theory perform a lot faster than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		224000 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 153600 (218%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970 should be a lot (approximately 131%) better at AF than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		109200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		47232 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 61968 (131%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 970 is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		67200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 55392 (469%)

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 largest amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

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