GeForce GTX 460 SE vs Radeon HD 7770

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 7770, which uses a 28 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 1000 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a frequency of 1125 MHz on this model. It features 640 SPUs along with 40 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 7770		80 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 SE		150 Watts
	Difference: 70 Watts (88%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 460 SE should perform a lot faster than the Radeon HD 7770 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		108800 MB/sec
Radeon HD 7770		72000 MB/sec
	Difference: 36800 (51%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 7770 should be quite a bit (approximately 28%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 460 SE. (explain)

Radeon HD 7770		40000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		31200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 8800 (28%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 SE is superior to the Radeon HD 7770, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		20800 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 7770		16000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4800 (30%)

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 information (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs 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 output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.