GeForce GTS 250 1GB vs Radeon R9 M290X

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon R9 M290X, which has GPU clock speed of 850 MHz, and 4096 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 1200 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is comprised of 1280 Stream Processors, 80 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon R9 M290X		100 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		145 Watts
	Difference: 45 Watts (45%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon R9 M290X is 118% faster than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB in general, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon R9 M290X		153600 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 83200 (118%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 M290X should be quite a bit (about 44%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB. (explain)

Radeon R9 M290X		68000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		47232 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 20768 (44%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 M290X will be quite a bit (about 130%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB, and also able to handle higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

Radeon R9 M290X		27200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 15392 (130%)

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: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. 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, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.