GeForce GTX 260 vs Radeon HD 4890 1GB

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 4890 1GB, which makes use of a 55 nm design. AMD has clocked the core speed at 1000 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a frequency of 975 MHz on this particular model. It features 800(160x5) SPUs along with 40 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 260		182 Watts
Radeon HD 4890 1GB		190 Watts
	Difference: 8 Watts (4%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Radeon HD 4890 1GB should theoretically be just a bit superior to the GeForce GTX 260 overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 4890 1GB		124800 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 260		111888 MB/sec
	Difference: 12912 (12%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4890 1GB should be just a bit (approximately 9%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 260. (explain)

Radeon HD 4890 1GB		40000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 260		36864 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 3136 (9%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 260 should be just a bit (approximately 1%) better at AA than the Radeon HD 4890 1GB, and capable of handling higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260		16128 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4890 1GB		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: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high 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 texture units by the core 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 applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs 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 fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.