GeForce GTS 250 512MB vs GeForce GTX 950

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 950, which features a core clock frequency of 1024 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1652 MHz. It also uses a 128-bit memory bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It features 768 SPUs, 48 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 950		90 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		145 Watts
	Difference: 55 Watts (61%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 950 should be a lot faster than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 950		105728 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 35328 (50%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 950 is a bit (more or less 4%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 950		49152 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		47232 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 1920 (4%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 950 is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 950		32768 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 20960 (178%)

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 maximum amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the 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 higher 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of 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 output rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.