GeForce 8800 GT 512MB vs GeForce GTS 250 512MB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTS 250 512MB, which makes use of a 65/55 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 738 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM works at a speed of 1100 MHz on this model. It features 128 SPUs as well as 64 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

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

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTS 250 512MB should in theory be much superior to the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB in general. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 512MB is quite a bit (more or less 41%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB. (explain)

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

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTS 250 512MB is superior to the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		11808 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		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 (measured in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core 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 output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.