GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm vs Radeon HD 4870 1GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 4870 1GB, which makes use of a 55 nm design. ATi has set the core frequency at 750 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM works at a frequency of 900 MHz on this particular card. It features 800(160x5) SPUs along with 40 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Avatar

Settings:	Ultra High Quality
AA:	8x
AF:	none
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		36 FPS
Radeon HD 4870 1GB		33 FPS
	Difference: 3 FPS (9%)

Battlefield Bad Company 2

Settings:	High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

Radeon HD 4870 1GB		33 FPS
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		32 FPS
	Difference: 1 FPS (3%)

Fallout 3

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

Radeon HD 4870 1GB		58 FPS
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		57 FPS
	Difference: 1 FPS (2%)

Fallout 3

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1680x1050
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Charts Test Rig (Source)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		76 FPS
Radeon HD 4870 1GB		74 FPS
	Difference: 2 FPS (3%)

Left4Dead

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

Radeon HD 4870 1GB		74 FPS
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		65 FPS
	Difference: 9 FPS (14%)

Left4Dead

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Charts Test Rig (Source)

Radeon HD 4870 1GB		80 FPS
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		78 FPS
	Difference: 2 FPS (3%)

Left4Dead 2

Settings:	Very High
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

Radeon HD 4870 1GB		80 FPS
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		74 FPS
	Difference: 6 FPS (8%)

Mass Effect 2

Settings:	Maximum Quality
AA:	none
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

Radeon HD 4870 1GB		98 FPS
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		94 FPS
	Difference: 4 FPS (4%)

Supreme Commander 2

Settings:	High
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

Radeon HD 4870 1GB		57 FPS
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		36 FPS
	Difference: 21 FPS (58%)

Tom Clancy's Endwar

Settings:	High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

Radeon HD 4870 1GB		30 FPS
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		24 FPS
	Difference: 6 FPS (25%)

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X

Settings:	High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1680x1050
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Charts Test Rig (Source)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		50 FPS
Radeon HD 4870 1GB		36 FPS
	Difference: 14 FPS (39%)

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Radeon HD 4870 1GB wins

(Based entirely on the benchmarks listed above)

When combining all game benchmark scores on this page together, the Radeon HD 4870 1GB wins overall, by 31 FPS. Please note that we do not have the results of every benchmark ever done for these cards, so the results may differ wildly in different games.

Radeon HD 4870 1GB		653 FPS
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		622 FPS
	Difference: 31 FPS (5%)

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4870 1GB		150 Watts
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		171 Watts
	Difference: 21 Watts (14%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon HD 4870 1GB should theoretically be a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 4870 1GB		115200 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		111888 MB/sec
	Difference: 3312 (3%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm is a lot (about 38%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 4870 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		41472 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4870 1GB		30000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 11472 (38%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm should be quite a bit (more or less 34%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 4870 1GB, and also capable of handling higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		16128 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4870 1GB		12000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4128 (34%)

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 information (counted in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, it must 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a 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. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number 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 drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.