GeForce GTS 250 1GB vs GeForce GTX 850M

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 850M, which has GPU clock speed of 876 MHz, and 2048 MB of DDR3 memory running at 1000 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also features 640 SPUs, 40 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 850M		40 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		145 Watts
	Difference: 105 Watts (263%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB, in theory, should perform a lot faster than the GeForce GTX 850M overall. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		70400 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 850M		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 38400 (120%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB will be much (more or less 35%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 850M. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 850M		35040 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 12192 (35%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 850M is a better choice, not by a very large margin though. (explain)

GeForce GTX 850M		14016 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2208 (19%)

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 (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen 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 texture units of the card by the core clock 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 per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock 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 rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.