GeForce 8800 GT 1GB vs GeForce GTS 250 512MB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTS 250 512MB, which has a clock frequency of 738 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 1100 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 65/55 nm design. It features 128 SPUs, 64 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GT 1GB		105 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		145 Watts
	Difference: 40 Watts (38%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTS 250 512MB should perform much faster than the GeForce 8800 GT 1GB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		70400 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 12800 (22%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 512MB should be quite a bit (more or less 41%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 8800 GT 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 1GB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 13632 (41%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 512MB is a lot (more or less 23%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce 8800 GT 1GB, and also should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		11808 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 1GB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2208 (23%)

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 moved across the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number 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 fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.