Radeon RX 6500 XT vs GeForce GTS 250

VS

Aggregate performance score

We've compared GeForce GTS 250 and Radeon RX 6500 XT, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

GTS 250
2009
1 GB GDDR3, 150 Watt
1.54

RX 6500 XT outperforms GTS 250 by a whopping 1512% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking972221
Place by popularitynot in top-10083
Cost-effectiveness evaluation0.0958.69
Power efficiency0.7115.94
ArchitectureTesla (2006−2010)RDNA 2.0 (2020−2024)
GPU code nameG92BNavi 24
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Release date4 March 2009 (15 years ago)19 January 2022 (2 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$199 $199

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

RX 6500 XT has 65111% better value for money than GTS 250.

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 cores1281024
Core clock speed738 MHz2610 MHz
Boost clock speedno data2815 MHz
Number of transistors754 million5,400 million
Manufacturing process technology55 nm6 nm
Power consumption (TDP)150 Watt107 Watt
Maximum GPU temperature105 °Cno data
Texture fill rate44.93180.2
Floating-point processing power0.3871 TFLOPS5.765 TFLOPS
ROPs1632
TMUs6464
Ray Tracing Coresno data16

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).

InterfacePCIe 2.0 x16PCIe 4.0 x4
Length229 mmno data
Height4.376" (111 mm) (11.1 cm)no data
Width2-slot2-slot
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pin1x 6-pin
SLI options+-

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 typeGDDR3GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount1 GB8 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit64 Bit
Memory clock speed1100 MHz2248 MHz
Memory bandwidth70.4 GB/s143.9 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 ConnectorsTwo Dual Link DVI1x HDMI 2.1, 1x DisplayPort 1.4a
Multi monitor support+no data
HDMI++
Maximum VGA resolution2048x1536no data
Audio input for HDMIS/PDIFno data

API compatibility

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

DirectX11.1 (10_0)12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model4.06.6
OpenGL3.04.6
OpenCL1.12.2
VulkanN/A1.3
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.

GTS 250 1.54
RX 6500 XT 24.83
+1512%

  • Passmark

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.

GTS 250 594
RX 6500 XT 9564
+1510%

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 HD3−4
−1967%
62
+1967%
1440p1−2
−2700%
28
+2700%
4K0−116

Cost per frame, $

1080p66.333.21
1440p199.007.11
4Kno data12.44

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 72
+0%
72
+0%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 50−55
+0%
50−55
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 51
+0%
51
+0%
Battlefield 5 80−85
+0%
80−85
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 50−55
+0%
50−55
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 54
+0%
54
+0%
Far Cry 5 55−60
+0%
55−60
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 65−70
+0%
65−70
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 140−150
+0%
140−150
+0%
Hitman 3 50−55
+0%
50−55
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 110−120
+0%
110−120
+0%
Metro Exodus 85−90
+0%
85−90
+0%
Red Dead Redemption 2 60−65
+0%
60−65
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 80−85
+0%
80−85
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 100−110
+0%
100−110
+0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 50−55
+0%
50−55
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 43
+0%
43
+0%
Battlefield 5 80−85
+0%
80−85
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 50−55
+0%
50−55
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 34
+0%
34
+0%
Far Cry 5 55−60
+0%
55−60
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 65−70
+0%
65−70
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 140−150
+0%
140−150
+0%
Hitman 3 50−55
+0%
50−55
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 110−120
+0%
110−120
+0%
Metro Exodus 85−90
+0%
85−90
+0%
Red Dead Redemption 2 60−65
+0%
60−65
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 107
+0%
107
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 50−55
+0%
50−55
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 100−110
+0%
100−110
+0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 50−55
+0%
50−55
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 31
+0%
31
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 50−55
+0%
50−55
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 30
+0%
30
+0%
Far Cry 5 55−60
+0%
55−60
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 140−150
+0%
140−150
+0%
Hitman 3 50−55
+0%
50−55
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 92
+0%
92
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 83
+0%
83
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 54
+0%
54
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 25
+0%
25
+0%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 60−65
+0%
60−65
+0%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 45−50
+0%
45−50
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 35−40
+0%
35−40
+0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 24−27
+0%
24−27
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 23
+0%
23
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 27−30
+0%
27−30
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 17
+0%
17
+0%
Far Cry 5 27−30
+0%
27−30
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 140−150
+0%
140−150
+0%
Hitman 3 27−30
+0%
27−30
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 66
+0%
66
+0%
Metro Exodus 57
+0%
57
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 56
+0%
56
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 30−33
+0%
30−33
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 140−150
+0%
140−150
+0%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 40−45
+0%
40−45
+0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 24−27
+0%
24−27
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 18−20
+0%
18−20
+0%
Hitman 3 10
+0%
10
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 120−130
+0%
120−130
+0%
Metro Exodus 27−30
+0%
27−30
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 28
+0%
28
+0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 14−16
+0%
14−16
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 6
+0%
6
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 14−16
+0%
14−16
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 4
+0%
4
+0%
Far Cry 5 14−16
+0%
14−16
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 30−35
+0%
30−35
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 25
+0%
25
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 10
+0%
10
+0%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 21−24
+0%
21−24
+0%

This is how GTS 250 and RX 6500 XT compete in popular games:

  • RX 6500 XT is 1967% faster in 1080p
  • RX 6500 XT is 2700% faster in 1440p

All in all, in popular games:

  • there's a draw in 72 tests (100%)

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 1.54 24.83
Recency 4 March 2009 19 January 2022
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 8 GB
Chip lithography 55 nm 6 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 150 Watt 107 Watt

RX 6500 XT has a 1512.3% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 12 years, a 700% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 816.7% more advanced lithography process, and 40.2% lower power consumption.

The Radeon RX 6500 XT is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GTS 250 in performance tests.


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

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NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250
GeForce GTS 250
AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT
Radeon RX 6500 XT

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.


3.5 1673 votes

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

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3.8 3315 votes

Rate Radeon RX 6500 XT on a scale of 1 to 5:

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Questions & comments

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