GeForce GTS 250 1GB vs GeForce GTX 860M

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 860M, which makes use of a 28 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 797 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM works at a frequency of 1000 MHz on this model. It features 1152 SPUs as well as 96 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 860M		45 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		145 Watts
	Difference: 100 Watts (222%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTS 250 1GB is 10% faster than the GeForce GTX 860M in general, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		70400 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 860M		64000 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (10%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 860M will be much (about 62%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		76512 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		47232 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 29280 (62%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 860M is a better choice, but only just. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		12752 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 944 (8%)

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 (in units of MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR memory, the result should 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 higher screen resolutions.

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