GeForce 8800 Ultra vs Radeon HD 4890 1GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 4890 1GB, which comes with a clock frequency of 1000 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 975 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and uses a 55 nm design. It is made up of 800(160x5) SPUs, 40 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

F.E.A.R. 2

Settings:	Maximum Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Unknown (Source)

Radeon HD 4890 1GB		88 FPS
GeForce 8800 Ultra		46 FPS
	Difference: 42 FPS (91%)

Fallout 3

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

Radeon HD 4890 1GB		63 FPS
GeForce 8800 Ultra		45 FPS
	Difference: 18 FPS (40%)

Fallout 3

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

Radeon HD 4890 1GB		80 FPS
GeForce 8800 Ultra		67 FPS
	Difference: 13 FPS (19%)

Far Cry 2

Settings:	Very High Qualty
AA:	none
AF:	none
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Intel Core i7-920,3 x 2 GB Ram,Windows Vista Ultimate 32 Bit SP1 (Source)

Radeon HD 4890 1GB		69 FPS
GeForce 8800 Ultra		45 FPS
	Difference: 24 FPS (53%)

Left4Dead

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

Radeon HD 4890 1GB		80 FPS
GeForce 8800 Ultra		49 FPS
	Difference: 31 FPS (63%)

Left4Dead

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

Radeon HD 4890 1GB		87 FPS
GeForce 8800 Ultra		59 FPS
	Difference: 28 FPS (47%)

Tom Clancy's Endwar

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

Radeon HD 4890 1GB		30 FPS
GeForce 8800 Ultra		20 FPS
	Difference: 10 FPS (50%)

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)

Radeon HD 4890 1GB		41 FPS
GeForce 8800 Ultra		39 FPS
	Difference: 2 FPS (5%)

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Radeon HD 4890 1GB wins

(Based entirely on the benchmarks listed above)

When combining all game benchmark scores on this page together, the Radeon HD 4890 1GB wins overall, by 168 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 4890 1GB		538 FPS
GeForce 8800 Ultra		370 FPS
	Difference: 168 FPS (45%)

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 Ultra		171 Watts
Radeon HD 4890 1GB		190 Watts
	Difference: 19 Watts (11%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon HD 4890 1GB should theoretically be just a bit faster than the GeForce 8800 Ultra overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 4890 1GB		124800 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		103680 MB/sec
	Difference: 21120 (20%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4890 1GB will be just a bit (more or less 2%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8800 Ultra. (explain)

Radeon HD 4890 1GB		40000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		39168 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 832 (2%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the Radeon HD 4890 1GB is the winner, but only just. (explain)

Radeon HD 4890 1GB		16000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 Ultra		14688 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1312 (9%)

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 megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better 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 processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's 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 also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.