GeForce GTS 250 1GB vs GeForce GTX 950M

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 950M, which comes with core clock speeds of 914 MHz on the GPU, and 1000 MHz on the 2048 MB of DDR3 RAM. It features 640 SPUs as well as 40 Texture Address Units and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 950M		55 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		145 Watts
	Difference: 90 Watts (164%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTS 250 1GB is 120% quicker than the GeForce GTX 950M in general, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		70400 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 950M		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 38400 (120%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB will be quite a bit (approximately 29%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 950M. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 950M		36560 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 10672 (29%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 950M will be a lot (approximately 24%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB, and also will be able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 950M		14624 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2816 (24%)

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 information (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can 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 the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.