GeForce GTX 560 vs Radeon HD 3470 512MB

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 3470 512MB, which has a clock frequency of 800 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 950 MHz. It also features a 128-bit bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is comprised of 40(8x5) SPUs, 4 TAUs, and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTX 560 should be much faster than the Radeon HD 3470 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		128128 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3470 512MB		30400 MB/sec
	Difference: 97728 (321%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 will be quite a bit (more or less 1318%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 3470 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		45360 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 512MB		3200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 42160 (1318%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 should be quite a bit (more or less 710%) more effective at AA than the Radeon HD 3470 512MB, and also will be able to handle higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		25920 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 512MB		3200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 22720 (710%)

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 largest amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the 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 are applied per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at 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 could 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 colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.