GeForce GTS 250 512MB vs Radeon R9 390 8G

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon R9 390 8G, which comes with a core clock frequency of 1000 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1500 MHz. It also makes use of a 512-bit bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It is made up of 2560 SPUs, 160 Texture Address Units, and 64 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		145 Watts
Radeon R9 390 8G		275 Watts
	Difference: 130 Watts (90%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the Radeon R9 390 8G should perform a lot faster than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB in general. (explain)

Radeon R9 390 8G		384000 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 313600 (445%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 390 8G should be a lot (approximately 239%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB. (explain)

Radeon R9 390 8G		160000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		47232 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 112768 (239%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 390 8G should be quite a bit (about 442%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB, and also should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon R9 390 8G		64000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 52192 (442%)

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 (measured in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, 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 that the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.