GeForce GTX 460 1GB vs Radeon R9 290X

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon R9 290X, which features GPU clock speed of 800 MHz, and 4096 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1250 MHz through a 512-bit bus. It also is comprised of 2816 SPUs, 176 TAUs, and 64 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		160 Watts
Radeon R9 290X		300 Watts
	Difference: 140 Watts (88%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon R9 290X should in theory perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 460 1GB in general. (explain)

Radeon R9 290X		320000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		115200 MB/sec
	Difference: 204800 (178%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 290X is a lot (approximately 272%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTX 460 1GB. (explain)

Radeon R9 290X		140800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 103000 (272%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 290X will be a lot (about 137%) better at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 460 1GB, and also should be able to handle higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon R9 290X		51200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 29600 (137%)

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 largest amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum 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 better this number, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount 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 is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.