GeForce GTX 650 vs Radeon HD 5870

Intro

Compare all of that to the Radeon HD 5870, which features GPU core speed of 850 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1200 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 1600(320x5) SPUs, 80 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 650		64 Watts
Radeon HD 5870		188 Watts
	Difference: 124 Watts (194%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Radeon HD 5870 should in theory be a lot better than the GeForce GTX 650 overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 5870		153600 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 650		80000 MB/sec
	Difference: 73600 (92%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 5870 will be much (more or less 101%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 650. (explain)

Radeon HD 5870		68000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 650		33856 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 34144 (101%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the Radeon HD 5870 is the winner, by far. (explain)

Radeon HD 5870		27200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 650		16928 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 10272 (61%)

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 data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster 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 in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units 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 processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. 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 fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.