GeForce 8800 GT 1GB vs GeForce GTS 250 1GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTS 250 1GB, which has a clock frequency of 738 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 1100 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and makes use of a 65/55 nm design. It features 128 SPUs, 64 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GT 1GB		105 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		145 Watts
	Difference: 40 Watts (38%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTS 250 1GB should be 22% quicker than the GeForce 8800 GT 1GB overall, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		70400 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 12800 (22%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB should be quite a bit (approximately 41%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8800 GT 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 1GB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 13632 (41%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB should be much (approximately 23%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8800 GT 1GB, and will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		11808 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 1GB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2208 (23%)

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 largest amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. 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 many 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.