GeForce GTX 285 1GB vs Radeon HD 7970

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 7970, which features a clock frequency of 925 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1375 MHz. It also makes use of a 384-bit memory bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is made up of 2048 SPUs, 128 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		204 Watts
Radeon HD 7970		250 Watts
	Difference: 46 Watts (23%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon HD 7970 is 66% quicker than the GeForce GTX 285 1GB in general, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon HD 7970		264000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 285 1GB		158976 MB/sec
	Difference: 105024 (66%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 7970 will be a lot (approximately 128%) better at AF than the GeForce GTX 285 1GB. (explain)

Radeon HD 7970		118400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 285 1GB		51840 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 66560 (128%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 7970 should be quite a bit (more or less 43%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce GTX 285 1GB, and capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

Radeon HD 7970		29600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 285 1GB		20736 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 8864 (43%)

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 data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.