GeForce 9800 GT 1GB vs GeForce GTS 250 512MB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTS 250 512MB, which comes with clock speeds of 738 MHz on the GPU, and 1100 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR3 memory. It features 128 SPUs as well as 64 Texture Address Units and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		105 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		145 Watts
	Difference: 40 Watts (38%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTS 250 512MB should be a lot faster than the GeForce 9800 GT 1GB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		70400 MB/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 12800 (22%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 512MB is much (more or less 41%) better at AF than the GeForce 9800 GT 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 13632 (41%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 512MB will be a lot (about 23%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9800 GT 1GB, and also capable of handling higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		11808 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2208 (23%)

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 maximum amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the 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 maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.