GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm vs Radeon HD 4890 2GB

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon HD 4890 2GB, which has a core clock speed of 1000 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 975 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It features 800(160x5) SPUs, 40 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

(No game benchmarks for this combination yet.)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		171 Watts
Radeon HD 4890 2GB		190 Watts
	Difference: 19 Watts (11%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Radeon HD 4890 2GB should theoretically be a little bit superior to the GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 4890 2GB		124800 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		111888 MB/sec
	Difference: 12912 (12%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm should be a small bit (approximately 4%) better at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 4890 2GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		41472 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4890 2GB		40000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 1472 (4%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm will be a bit (more or less 1%) more effective at AA than the Radeon HD 4890 2GB, and also should be able to handle higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		16128 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4890 2GB		16000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 128 (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.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the max amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This figure is worked out 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 video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly write 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 the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.