GeForce GTS 250 512MB vs Radeon R9 280X

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon R9 280X, which makes use of a 28 nm design. AMD has set the core speed at 850 MHz. The GDDR5 memory is set to run at a speed of 1500 MHz on this particular model. It features 2048 SPUs as well as 128 Texture Address Units and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		145 Watts
Radeon R9 280X		250 Watts
	Difference: 105 Watts (72%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon R9 280X should theoretically be much faster than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB overall. (explain)

Radeon R9 280X		288000 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 217600 (309%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 280X will be a lot (more or less 130%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB. (explain)

Radeon R9 280X		108800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		47232 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 61568 (130%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the Radeon R9 280X is superior to the GeForce GTS 250 512MB, by far. (explain)

Radeon R9 280X		27200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		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: Bandwidth is the largest amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better 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 processed per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total number 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 in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated 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 outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.