GeForce GTX 285 2GB vs Radeon R9 290

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon R9 290, which has a core clock frequency of 800 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1250 MHz. It also uses a 512-bit bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It features 2560 SPUs, 160 TAUs, and 64 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 285 2GB		204 Watts
Radeon R9 290		300 Watts
	Difference: 96 Watts (47%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon R9 290 is 101% quicker than the GeForce GTX 285 2GB in general, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

Radeon R9 290		320000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 285 2GB		158976 MB/sec
	Difference: 161024 (101%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 290 will be quite a bit (about 147%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 285 2GB. (explain)

Radeon R9 290		128000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 285 2GB		51840 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 76160 (147%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 290 will be quite a bit (more or less 147%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce GTX 285 2GB, and also able to handle higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

Radeon R9 290		51200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 285 2GB		20736 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 30464 (147%)

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 information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher 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 texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics 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 that the graphics chip can possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. 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 rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.