GeForce GTX 460 SE vs Radeon R9 390X 8G

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon R9 390X 8G, which makes use of a 28 nm design. AMD has clocked the core frequency at 1050 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a speed of 1500 MHz on this model. It features 2816 SPUs along with 176 TAUs and 64 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		150 Watts
Radeon R9 390X 8G		275 Watts
	Difference: 125 Watts (83%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon R9 390X 8G should be much faster than the GeForce GTX 460 SE overall. (explain)

Radeon R9 390X 8G		384000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		108800 MB/sec
	Difference: 275200 (253%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 390X 8G is a lot (about 492%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 460 SE. (explain)

Radeon R9 390X 8G		184800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		31200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 153600 (492%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 390X 8G should be much (approximately 223%) better at FSAA than the GeForce GTX 460 SE, and should be able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

Radeon R9 390X 8G		67200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		20800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 46400 (223%)

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 (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the better 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 applied per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of 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 in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. 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 output rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.