GeForce GTX 960 vs Radeon HD 4890 2GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 4890 2GB, which uses a 55 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 1000 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM runs at a frequency of 975 MHz on this specific card. It features 800(160x5) SPUs as well as 40 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 960		120 Watts
Radeon HD 4890 2GB		190 Watts
	Difference: 70 Watts (58%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 4890 2GB should perform a little bit faster than the GeForce GTX 960 overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 4890 2GB		124800 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 960		112000 MB/sec
	Difference: 12800 (11%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960 should be a lot (more or less 80%) faster with regards to AF than the Radeon HD 4890 2GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		72128 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4890 2GB		40000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 32128 (80%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960 is a lot (more or less 125%) better at AA than the Radeon HD 4890 2GB, and capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		36064 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4890 2GB		16000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 20064 (125%)

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 (measured in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, 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 texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher 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 number of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.