GeForce GTS 250 1GB vs GeForce GTX 960M

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 960M, which features GPU core speed of 1096 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 1000 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also 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 1GB		145 Watts
	Difference: 80 Watts (123%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB, in theory, should be a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 960M in general. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		70400 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 960M		64000 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (10%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB will be a small bit (more or less 8%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 960M. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 960M		43840 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 3392 (8%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 960M is superior to the GeForce GTS 250 1GB, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M		17536 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		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 max amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the 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 texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as 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 memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.