GeForce 8800 GTX vs GeForce GTS 250 512MB

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTS 250 512MB, which comes with core clock speeds of 738 MHz on the GPU, and 1100 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR3 memory. It features 128 SPUs along with 64 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		145 Watts
GeForce 8800 GTX		155 Watts
	Difference: 10 Watts (7%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 8800 GTX is 23% faster than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB in general, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		86400 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 16000 (23%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 512MB should be much (more or less 28%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8800 GTX. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTX		36800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 10432 (28%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce 8800 GTX is the winner, but only just. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		13800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1992 (17%)

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 max amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster 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 are applied per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the 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 can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. 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 fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.