GeForce GTX 460 1GB vs Radeon HD 7870 XT

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 7870 XT, which has a clock frequency of 925 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1500 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It features 1536 SPUs, 96 Texture Address Units, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		160 Watts
Radeon HD 7870 XT		185 Watts
	Difference: 25 Watts (16%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the Radeon HD 7870 XT should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 460 1GB overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 7870 XT		192000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		115200 MB/sec
	Difference: 76800 (67%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 7870 XT will be quite a bit (more or less 135%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 460 1GB. (explain)

Radeon HD 7870 XT		88800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 51000 (135%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 7870 XT will be quite a bit (approximately 37%) better at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 460 1GB, and also capable of handling higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

Radeon HD 7870 XT		29600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 8000 (37%)

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 max amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster 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 applied in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video 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 can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's 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 output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.