GeForce GTS 250 512MB vs GeForce GTX 980

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 980, which features a core clock frequency of 1126 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1750 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It features 2048 SPUs, 128 Texture Address Units, and 64 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		145 Watts
GeForce GTX 980		165 Watts
	Difference: 20 Watts (14%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 980 should in theory be a lot superior to the GeForce GTS 250 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		224000 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 153600 (218%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 980 is much (approximately 205%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		144128 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		47232 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 96896 (205%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 980 is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		72064 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 60256 (510%)

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: Bandwidth is the largest amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card could possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.