GeForce 8800 GTX vs GeForce GTS 250 1GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTS 250 1GB, which comes with a clock speed of 738 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 1100 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and uses a 65/55 nm design. It is made up of 128 SPUs, 64 Texture Address Units, and 16 ROPs.

F.E.A.R. 2

Settings:	Maximum Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Unknown (Source)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		48 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTX		42 FPS
	Difference: 6 FPS (14%)

Fallout 3

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		38 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTX		21 FPS
	Difference: 17 FPS (81%)

Fallout 3

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1680x1050
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Charts Test Rig (Source)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		66 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTX		54 FPS
	Difference: 12 FPS (22%)

Far Cry 2

Settings:	Very High Qualty
AA:	none
AF:	none
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Intel Core i7-920,3 x 2 GB Ram,Windows Vista Ultimate 32 Bit SP1 (Source)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		50 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTX		40 FPS
	Difference: 10 FPS (25%)

Left4Dead

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		44 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTX		43 FPS
	Difference: 1 FPS (2%)

Left4Dead

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Charts Test Rig (Source)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		56 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTX		53 FPS
	Difference: 3 FPS (6%)

Tom Clancy's Endwar

Settings:	High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		19 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTX		17 FPS
	Difference: 2 FPS (12%)

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X

Settings:	High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1680x1050
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Charts Test Rig (Source)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		42 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTX		40 FPS
	Difference: 2 FPS (5%)

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GeForce GTS 250 1GB wins

(Based entirely on the benchmarks listed above)

When combining all game benchmark scores on this page together, the GeForce GTS 250 1GB wins overall, by 70 FPS. Please note that we do not have the results of every benchmark ever done for these cards, so the results may differ wildly in different games.

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		401 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTX		331 FPS
	Difference: 70 FPS (21%)

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		145 Watts
GeForce 8800 GTX		155 Watts
	Difference: 10 Watts (7%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 8800 GTX should be 23% faster than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB in general, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		86400 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 16000 (23%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB will be quite a bit (approximately 28%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8800 GTX. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTX		36800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 10432 (28%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTX will be a small bit (more or less 17%) better at FSAA than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB, and also should be capable of handling higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		13800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		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: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of colour 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 rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.