GeForce GTS 250 1GB vs GeForce GTX 860M

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 860M, which has GPU core speed of 797 MHz, and 4096 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 1000 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also features 1152 Stream Processors, 96 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation 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

Theoretically, the GeForce GTS 250 1GB should perform a small bit faster than the GeForce GTX 860M in general. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 860M should be quite a bit (more or less 62%) better at texture filtering 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

The GeForce GTX 860M should be a little bit (about 8%) better at FSAA than the GeForce GTS 250 1GB, and will be able to handle higher resolutions better. (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: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed per second.

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