GeForce GTX 460 2GB vs Radeon R9 290

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon R9 290, which features GPU core speed of 800 MHz, and 4096 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 1250 MHz through a 512-bit bus. It also features 2560 Stream Processors, 160 TAUs, and 64 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		160 Watts
Radeon R9 290		300 Watts
	Difference: 140 Watts (88%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the Radeon R9 290 should in theory be much superior to the GeForce GTX 460 2GB in general. (explain)

Radeon R9 290		320000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		115200 MB/sec
	Difference: 204800 (178%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 290 is quite a bit (more or less 239%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 460 2GB. (explain)

Radeon R9 290		128000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 90200 (239%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 290 should be quite a bit (approximately 137%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 460 2GB, and also able to handle higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

Radeon R9 290		51200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		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: Bandwidth is the max amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. The number is 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 it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.