GeForce GTX 460 SE vs Radeon HD 7770

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon HD 7770, which makes use of a 28 nm design. AMD has clocked the core frequency at 1000 MHz. The GDDR5 memory is set to run at a frequency of 1125 MHz on this specific model. It features 640 SPUs as well as 40 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

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 will be 51% quicker than the Radeon HD 7770 in general, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 7770 is quite a bit (approximately 28%) faster with regards to AF 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 running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 SE is superior to the Radeon HD 7770, and very much so. (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: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 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, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels 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 number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.