GeForce GTX 660 vs Radeon HD 3470 512MB

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 3470 512MB, which makes use of a 55 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 800 MHz. The GDDR3 memory works at a speed of 950 MHz on this specific card. It features 40(8x5) SPUs as well as 4 TAUs and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 660, in theory, should perform quite a bit faster than the Radeon HD 3470 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		144192 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3470 512MB		30400 MB/sec
	Difference: 113792 (374%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 is a lot (more or less 2350%) faster with regards to AF than the Radeon HD 3470 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		78400 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 512MB		3200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 75200 (2350%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 660 is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		23520 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 512MB		3200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 20320 (635%)

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 maximum amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units 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 video card could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.