GeForce GTS 250 512MB vs Radeon R7 260X

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon R7 260X, which features GPU core speed of 1100 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 1625 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also features 896 Stream Processors, 56 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon R7 260X		115 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		145 Watts
	Difference: 30 Watts (26%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Radeon R7 260X should theoretically be much better than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB in general. (explain)

Radeon R7 260X		104000 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 33600 (48%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R7 260X is quite a bit (about 30%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB. (explain)

Radeon R7 260X		61600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		47232 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 14368 (30%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R7 260X is quite a bit (about 49%) better at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB, and should be able to handle higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

Radeon R7 260X		17600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5792 (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: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 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, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock 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 a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number 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 is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.