GeForce GTS 250M vs 9800M GTS

VS

Aggregate performance score

We've compared GeForce 9800M GTS and GeForce GTS 250M, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

9800M GTS
2008
512 MB GDDR3, 75 Watt
0.97

GTS 250M outperforms 9800M GTS by a considerable 47% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the ranking1109991
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Power efficiency0.903.54
ArchitectureTesla (2006−2010)Tesla 2.0 (2007−2013)
GPU code nameG94GT215
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date29 July 2008 (16 years ago)15 June 2009 (15 years ago)

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores6496
Core clock speed600 MHz500 MHz
Number of transistors505 million727 million
Manufacturing process technology65 nm40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)75 Watt28 Watt
Texture fill rate19.2016.00
Floating-point processing power0.192 TFLOPS0.24 TFLOPS
Gigaflops240360
ROPs168
TMUs3232

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Laptop sizelargelarge
Bus supportno dataPCI-E 2.0
InterfacePCIe 2.0 x16PCIe 2.0 x16
Supplementary power connectorsNoneno data
SLI options-+
MXM Typeno dataMXM 3.0 Type-B

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory typeGDDR3GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount512 MB1 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit128 Bit
Memory clock speed800 MHzUp to 2000 MHz
Memory bandwidth51.2 GB/s51.2 GB/s
Shared memory--

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display ConnectorsNo outputsHDMIVGALVDSSingle Link DVIDisplayPortDual Link DVI
HDMI-+
Maximum VGA resolutionno data2048x1536

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

Power managementno data8.0

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX11.1 (10_0)11.1 (10_1)
Shader Model4.04.1
OpenGL3.32.1
OpenCL1.11.1
VulkanN/AN/A
CUDA++

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.


Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

9800M GTS 0.97
GTS 250M 1.43
+47.4%

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

9800M GTS 376
GTS 250M 553
+47.1%

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

9800M GTS 4060
+11%
GTS 250M 3659

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:

Full HD18−20
−55.6%
28
+55.6%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 3−4
−33.3%
4−5
+33.3%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 5−6
−20%
6−7
+20%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4−5
+0%
4−5
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 3−4
−33.3%
4−5
+33.3%
Far Cry 5 1−2
−100%
2−3
+100%
Far Cry New Dawn 2−3
−50%
3−4
+50%
Hitman 3 5−6
−20%
6−7
+20%
Horizon Zero Dawn 12−14
−15.4%
14−16
+15.4%
Red Dead Redemption 2 1−2
−100%
2−3
+100%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 7−8
−14.3%
8−9
+14.3%
Watch Dogs: Legion 30−35
−3.1%
30−35
+3.1%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 5−6
−20%
6−7
+20%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4−5
+0%
4−5
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 3−4
−33.3%
4−5
+33.3%
Far Cry 5 1−2
−100%
2−3
+100%
Far Cry New Dawn 2−3
−50%
3−4
+50%
Hitman 3 5−6
−20%
6−7
+20%
Horizon Zero Dawn 12−14
−15.4%
14−16
+15.4%
Red Dead Redemption 2 1−2
−100%
2−3
+100%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 7−8
−14.3%
8−9
+14.3%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 10−11
−10%
10−12
+10%
Watch Dogs: Legion 30−35
−3.1%
30−35
+3.1%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 5−6
−20%
6−7
+20%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4−5
+0%
4−5
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 3−4
−33.3%
4−5
+33.3%
Far Cry 5 1−2
−100%
2−3
+100%
Hitman 3 5−6
−20%
6−7
+20%
Horizon Zero Dawn 12−14
−15.4%
14−16
+15.4%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 7−8
−14.3%
8−9
+14.3%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 10−11
−10%
10−12
+10%
Watch Dogs: Legion 30−35
−3.1%
30−35
+3.1%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 1−2
−100%
2−3
+100%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 1−2
−100%
2−3
+100%
Far Cry New Dawn 1−2
−100%
2−3
+100%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%
Far Cry 5 1−2
−100%
2−3
+100%
Hitman 3 7−8
+0%
7−8
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 4−5
−25%
5−6
+25%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 0−1 1−2
Watch Dogs: Legion 4−5
−75%
7−8
+75%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 3−4
−33.3%
4−5
+33.3%

4K
High Preset

Far Cry New Dawn 0−1 1−2

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 0−1 1−2
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 0−1 0−1
Far Cry 5 0−1 0−1

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 2−3
−50%
3−4
+50%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Forza Horizon 4 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%

Full HD
High Preset

Forza Horizon 4 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Forza Horizon 4 3−4
+0%
3−4
+0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 0−1 0−1

This is how 9800M GTS and GTS 250M compete in popular games:

  • GTS 250M is 56% faster in 1080p

Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:

  • in Far Cry 5, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the GTS 250M is 100% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • GTS 250M is ahead in 36 tests (78%)
  • there's a draw in 10 tests (22%)

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 0.97 1.43
Recency 29 July 2008 15 June 2009
Maximum RAM amount 512 MB 1 GB
Chip lithography 65 nm 40 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 75 Watt 28 Watt

GTS 250M has a 47.4% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 10 months, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 62.5% more advanced lithography process, and 167.9% lower power consumption.

The GeForce GTS 250M is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce 9800M GTS in performance tests.


Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

Vote for your favorite

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite graphics card.


NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS
GeForce 9800M GTS
NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250M
GeForce GTS 250M

Comparisons with similar GPUs

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


3.1 42 votes

Rate GeForce 9800M GTS on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
3.7 7 votes

Rate GeForce GTS 250M on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Questions & comments

Here you can ask a question about this comparison, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.