GeForce GTX 560 vs Radeon HD 4790

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 4790, which has a core clock frequency of 600 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 800 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 55 nm design. It is made up of 640(128x5) SPUs, 32 Texture Address Units, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 560 is 25% faster than the Radeon HD 4790 overall, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		128128 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4790		102400 MB/sec
	Difference: 25728 (25%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 is a lot (about 136%) more effective at AF than the Radeon HD 4790. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		45360 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4790		19200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 26160 (136%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 is quite a bit (approximately 170%) more effective at FSAA than the Radeon HD 4790, and also will be able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		25920 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4790		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 16320 (170%)

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: Bandwidth is the largest amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.