GeForce 9800 GX2 vs GeForce GTS 250 512MB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTS 250 512MB, which uses a 65/55 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 738 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM runs at a frequency of 1100 MHz on this particular model. It features 128 SPUs along with 64 Texture Address Units and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		145 Watts
GeForce 9800 GX2		197 Watts
	Difference: 52 Watts (36%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce 9800 GX2 should in theory be quite a bit better than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		128000 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		70400 MB/sec
	Difference: 57600 (82%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 should be much (about 63%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		76800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		47232 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 29568 (63%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GX2 should be quite a bit (approximately 63%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTS 250 512MB, and able to handle higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GX2		19200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 7392 (63%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface 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 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.