GeForce GTS 250 1GB vs Radeon R9 M280X

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon R9 M280X, which features core speeds of 900 MHz on the GPU, and 1375 MHz on the 4096 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 896 SPUs as well as 56 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon R9 M280X		75 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		145 Watts
	Difference: 70 Watts (93%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon R9 M280X should be 25% faster than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB overall, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon R9 M280X		88000 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 17600 (25%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 M280X is a little bit (approximately 7%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB. (explain)

Radeon R9 M280X		50400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		47232 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 3168 (7%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the Radeon R9 M280X is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

Radeon R9 M280X		14400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2592 (22%)

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 (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core 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 applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.