GeForce GTX 285 1GB vs Radeon HD 6790

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon HD 6790, which comes with GPU core speed of 840 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1050 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 800 SPUs, 40 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

(No game benchmarks for this combination yet.)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 6790		150 Watts
GeForce GTX 285 1GB		204 Watts
	Difference: 54 Watts (36%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 285 1GB should be 18% quicker than the Radeon HD 6790 overall, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		158976 MB/sec
Radeon HD 6790		134400 MB/sec
	Difference: 24576 (18%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 285 1GB is much (approximately 54%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 6790. (explain)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		51840 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 6790		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 18240 (54%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 285 1GB is superior to the Radeon HD 6790, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		20736 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 6790		13440 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 7296 (54%)

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 max amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. 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 processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.