GeForce GTX 295 vs Radeon R9 270X

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon R9 270X, which has a clock frequency of 1000 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1400 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 1280 SPUs, 80 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon R9 270X		180 Watts
GeForce GTX 295		289 Watts
	Difference: 109 Watts (61%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 295 is 25% faster than the Radeon R9 270X in general, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 295		223776 MB/sec
Radeon R9 270X		179200 MB/sec
	Difference: 44576 (25%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 295 will be a little bit (more or less 15%) more effective at texture filtering than the Radeon R9 270X. (explain)

GeForce GTX 295		92160 Mtexels/sec
Radeon R9 270X		80000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 12160 (15%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 295 should be a small bit (more or less 1%) better at FSAA than the Radeon R9 270X, and should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 295		32256 Mpixels/sec
Radeon R9 270X		32000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 256 (1%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, 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 can be processed in one 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 video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. 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 output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.