GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB vs GeForce GTS 250 1GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTS 250 1GB, which has GPU core speed of 738 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR3 memory running at 1100 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 128 SPUs, 64 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Battlefield Bad Company 2

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

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		25 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		6 FPS
	Difference: 19 FPS (317%)

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 GTS (G80) 320MB		28 FPS
	Difference: 20 FPS (71%)

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 GTS (G80) 320MB		21 FPS
	Difference: 45 FPS (214%)

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 GTS (G80) 320MB		23 FPS
	Difference: 27 FPS (117%)

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 GTS (G80) 320MB		35 FPS
	Difference: 21 FPS (60%)

Left4Dead 2

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

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		58 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		27 FPS
	Difference: 31 FPS (115%)

Mass Effect 2

Settings:	Maximum Quality
AA:	none
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		70 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		52 FPS
	Difference: 18 FPS (35%)

Supreme Commander 2

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

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		31 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		22 FPS
	Difference: 9 FPS (41%)

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 GTS (G80) 320MB		8 FPS
	Difference: 11 FPS (138%)

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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 222 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		479 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		257 FPS
	Difference: 222 FPS (86%)

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		143 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		145 Watts
	Difference: 2 Watts (1%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB, in theory, should perform just a bit faster than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		70400 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		63360 MB/sec
	Difference: 7040 (11%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB is quite a bit (approximately 92%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		24624 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 22608 (92%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB will be a little bit (about 15%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB, and should be able to handle higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		11808 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB		10260 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1548 (15%)

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 (measured in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output 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 potential to reach the max fill rate.