GeForce GTS 250 512MB vs Radeon R9 270X

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon R9 270X, which comes with a clock frequency of 1000 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1400 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It is made up of 1280 SPUs, 80 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		145 Watts
Radeon R9 270X		180 Watts
	Difference: 35 Watts (24%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the Radeon R9 270X should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB overall. (explain)

Radeon R9 270X		179200 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 108800 (155%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 270X should be quite a bit (about 69%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB. (explain)

Radeon R9 270X		80000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		47232 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 32768 (69%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 270X is quite a bit (about 171%) better at AA than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB, and able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

Radeon R9 270X		32000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 20192 (171%)

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 (counted in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, 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 per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core clock speed. 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 output rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.