GeForce GTS 250 1GB vs GeForce GTX 960M

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 960M, which uses a 28 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 1096 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a speed of 1000 MHz on this specific model. It features 640 SPUs as well as 40 Texture Address Units and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 960M		65 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		145 Watts
	Difference: 80 Watts (123%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTS 250 1GB will be 10% quicker than the GeForce GTX 960M overall, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		70400 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 960M		64000 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (10%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB should be a small bit (about 8%) better at AF than the GeForce GTX 960M. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 960M		43840 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 3392 (8%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960M will be a lot (more or less 49%) more effective at AA than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB, and able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M		17536 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5728 (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 max amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. 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 rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.