GeForce GTS 250 512MB vs GeForce GTX 960M

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 960M, which has a core clock frequency of 1096 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1000 MHz. It also features a 128-bit bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 640 SPUs, 40 Texture Address Units, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 960M		65 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		145 Watts
	Difference: 80 Watts (123%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTS 250 512MB should theoretically be a little bit faster than the GeForce GTX 960M overall. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		70400 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 960M		64000 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (10%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 512MB will be a little bit (more or less 8%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 960M. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 960M		43840 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 3392 (8%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960M should be a lot (about 49%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB, and should be able to handle higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M		17536 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5728 (49%)

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 data (counted in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.