GeForce GTS 250M vs GTX 1060 Mobile

Place in the ranking	275	991
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	26.16	no data
Power efficiency	17.11	3.55
Architecture	Pascal (2016−2021)	Tesla 2.0 (2007−2013)
GPU code name	GP106	GT215
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Release date	15 August 2016 (8 years ago)	15 June 2009 (15 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$237.11	no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

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 cores	1280	96
Core clock speed	1506 MHz	500 MHz
Boost clock speed	1708 MHz	no data
Number of transistors	4,400 million	727 million
Manufacturing process technology	16 nm	40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	80 Watt	28 Watt
Maximum GPU temperature	94 °C	no data
Texture fill rate	133.6	16.00
Floating-point processing power	4.275 TFLOPS	0.24 TFLOPS
Gigaflops	no data	360
ROPs	48	8
TMUs	80	32

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 size	large	large
Bus support	PCIe 3.0	PCI-E 2.0
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 2.0 x16
SLI options	-	+
MXM Type	no data	MXM 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 type	GDDR5	GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount	6 GB	1 GB
Memory bus width	192 Bit	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	2002 MHz	Up to 2000 MHz
Memory bandwidth	192 GB/s	51.2 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 Connectors	DP 1.43, HDMI 2.0b, Dual Link-DVI	HDMIVGALVDSSingle Link DVIDisplayPortDual Link DVI
Multi monitor support	+	no data
HDMI	-	+
HDCP	2.2	-
Maximum VGA resolution	no data	2048x1536
G-SYNC support	+	-

Supported technologies

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

GameStream	+	-
GPU Boost	3.0	no data
Power management	no data	8.0
VR Ready	+	no data
Ansel	+	no data

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (12_1)	11.1 (10_1)
Shader Model	6.4	4.1
OpenGL	4.5	2.1
OpenCL	1.2	1.1
Vulkan	1.2.131	N/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.

GTX 1060 Mobile 19.68
+1276%

GTS 250M 1.43

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.

GTX 1060 Mobile 34127
+833%

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 HD	67 +139%	28 −139%
1440p	41 +1950%	2−3 −1950%
4K	30 +1400%	2−3 −1400%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

37
+825%

4−5

−825%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	62 +933%	6−7 −933%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	53 +1667%	3−4 −1667%
Battlefield 5	78 +1460%	5−6 −1460%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	61 +1425%	4−5 −1425%
Cyberpunk 2077	30 +650%	4−5 −650%
Far Cry 5	75 +3650%	2−3 −3650%
Far Cry New Dawn	76 +2433%	3−4 −2433%
Forza Horizon 4	229 +7533%	3−4 −7533%
Hitman 3	54 +800%	6−7 −800%
Horizon Zero Dawn	136 +807%	14−16 −807%
Metro Exodus	81 +1520%	5−6 −1520%
Red Dead Redemption 2	74 +3600%	2−3 −3600%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	119 +1388%	8−9 −1388%
Watch Dogs: Legion	137 +315%	30−35 −315%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	91 +1417%	6−7 −1417%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	45 +1400%	3−4 −1400%
Battlefield 5	69 +1280%	5−6 −1280%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	55 +1275%	4−5 −1275%
Cyberpunk 2077	25 +525%	4−5 −525%
Far Cry 5	59 +2850%	2−3 −2850%
Far Cry New Dawn	58 +1833%	3−4 −1833%
Forza Horizon 4	210 +6900%	3−4 −6900%
Hitman 3	51 +750%	6−7 −750%
Horizon Zero Dawn	134 +793%	14−16 −793%
Metro Exodus	70 +1300%	5−6 −1300%
Red Dead Redemption 2	62 +3000%	2−3 −3000%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	80 +900%	8−9 −900%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	122 +1009%	10−12 −1009%
Watch Dogs: Legion	133 +303%	30−35 −303%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	37 +517%	6−7 −517%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	38 +1800%	2−3 −1800%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	40 +900%	4−5 −900%
Cyberpunk 2077	23 +475%	4−5 −475%
Far Cry 5	43 +2050%	2−3 −2050%
Forza Horizon 4	71 +2267%	3−4 −2267%
Hitman 3	45 +650%	6−7 −650%
Horizon Zero Dawn	66 +340%	14−16 −340%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	68 +750%	8−9 −750%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	39 +255%	10−12 −255%
Watch Dogs: Legion	28 −17.9%	30−35 +17.9%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

59
+2850%

2−3

−2850%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	41 +1950%	2−3 −1950%
Far Cry New Dawn	40 +1900%	2−3 −1900%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	27 +2600%	1−2 −2600%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	27 +2600%	1−2 −2600%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	27	0−1
Cyberpunk 2077	12−14 +1200%	1−2 −1200%
Far Cry 5	28 +1300%	2−3 −1300%
Forza Horizon 4	173 +1342%	12−14 −1342%
Hitman 3	24−27 +257%	7−8 −257%
Horizon Zero Dawn	48 +860%	5−6 −860%
Metro Exodus	45 +1400%	3−4 −1400%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	40−45 +1367%	3−4 −1367%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	24−27 +2400%	1−2 −2400%
Watch Dogs: Legion	129 +1743%	7−8 −1743%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

40
+900%

4−5

−900%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	22 +2100%	1−2 −2100%
Far Cry New Dawn	21 +2000%	1−2 −2000%
Hitman 3	16−18 +1500%	1−2 −1500%
Horizon Zero Dawn	59 +1375%	4−5 −1375%
Metro Exodus	22 +2100%	1−2 −2100%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	26 +2500%	1−2 −2500%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	18 +1700%	1−2 −1700%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	10 +900%	1−2 −900%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	13	0−1
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5	0−1
Far Cry 5	14	0−1
Forza Horizon 4	35 +1650%	2−3 −1650%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	24−27 +2300%	1−2 −2300%
Watch Dogs: Legion	9−10	0−1

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

20
+567%

3−4

−567%

This is how GTX 1060 Mobile and GTS 250M compete in popular games:

GTX 1060 Mobile is 139% faster in 1080p
GTX 1060 Mobile is 1950% faster in 1440p
GTX 1060 Mobile is 1400% faster in 4K

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

in Forza Horizon 4, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the GTX 1060 Mobile is 7533% faster.
in Watch Dogs: Legion, with 1080p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the GTS 250M is 18% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

GTX 1060 Mobile is ahead in 48 tests (98%)
GTS 250M is ahead in 1 test (2%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	19.68	1.43
Recency	15 August 2016	15 June 2009
Maximum RAM amount	6 GB	1 GB
Chip lithography	16 nm	40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	80 Watt	28 Watt

GTX 1060 Mobile has a 1276.2% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 7 years, a 500% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 150% more advanced lithography process.

GTS 250M, on the other hand, has 185.7% lower power consumption.

The GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GTS 250M in performance tests.

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