Radeon HD 6990 vs Radeon RX 460 2GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon RX 460 2GB, which uses a 14 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 1090 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a speed of 1750 MHz on this particular model. It features 896 SPUs as well as 56 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon RX 460 2GB		75 Watts
Radeon HD 6990		375 Watts
	Difference: 300 Watts (400%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 6990 should be 186% faster than the Radeon RX 460 2GB overall, because of its greater data rate. (explain)

Radeon HD 6990		320000 MB/sec
Radeon RX 460 2GB		112000 MB/sec
	Difference: 208000 (186%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 6990 should be quite a bit (about 161%) better at AF than the Radeon RX 460 2GB. (explain)

Radeon HD 6990		159360 Mtexels/sec
Radeon RX 460 2GB		61040 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 98320 (161%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the Radeon HD 6990 is superior to the Radeon RX 460 2GB, and very much so. (explain)

Radeon HD 6990		53120 Mpixels/sec
Radeon RX 460 2GB		17440 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 35680 (205%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.