GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) vs GeForce GTS 250 512MB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTS 250 512MB, which has GPU core speed of 738 MHz, and 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM running at 1100 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 128 SPUs, 64 Texture Address Units, and 16 ROPs.

(No game benchmarks for this combination yet.)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G92)		135 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		145 Watts
	Difference: 10 Watts (7%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTS 250 512MB is 13% faster than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) in general, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		70400 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G92)		62080 MB/sec
	Difference: 8320 (13%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 512MB will be a bit (approximately 14%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G92). (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G92)		41600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 5632 (14%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTS 250 512MB is superior to the GeForce 8800 GTS (G92), but it probably won't make a huge difference. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		11808 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G92)		10400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1408 (14%)

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 (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock 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 applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel 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 ability to get to the max fill rate.