GeForce GTS 250 512MB vs Radeon R9 M280X

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon R9 M280X, which uses a 28 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 900 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM runs at a frequency of 1375 MHz on this particular model. It features 896 SPUs as well as 56 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon R9 M280X		75 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		145 Watts
	Difference: 70 Watts (93%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Radeon R9 M280X should in theory be much better than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB in general. (explain)

Radeon R9 M280X		88000 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 17600 (25%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 M280X should be a little bit (more or less 7%) better at AF than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB. (explain)

Radeon R9 M280X		50400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		47232 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 3168 (7%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 M280X should be a lot (more or less 22%) better at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB, and also should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

Radeon R9 M280X		14400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2592 (22%)

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 (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.