GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 vs Radeon HD 7950 3GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 7950 3GB, which comes with a GPU core clock speed of 800 MHz, and 3072 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1250 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also is comprised of 1792 SPUs, 112 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 7950 3GB		200 Watts
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		202 Watts
	Difference: 2 Watts (1%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 7950 3GB should perform a lot faster than the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 7950 3GB		240000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		111888 MB/sec
	Difference: 128112 (115%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 7950 3GB is quite a bit (approximately 116%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216. (explain)

Radeon HD 7950 3GB		89600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		41472 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 48128 (116%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 7950 3GB will be quite a bit (approximately 59%) better at FSAA than the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216, and should be able to handle higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

Radeon HD 7950 3GB		25600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		16128 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9472 (59%)

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 max amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to the 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 clock 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 rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.