Radeon HD 5870 vs Radeon RX 460 2GB

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon RX 460 2GB, which has a clock frequency of 1090 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1750 MHz. It also uses a 128-bit bus, and makes use of a 14 nm design. It is comprised of 896 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon RX 460 2GB		75 Watts
Radeon HD 5870		188 Watts
	Difference: 113 Watts (151%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the Radeon HD 5870 should theoretically be quite a bit better than the Radeon RX 460 2GB in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 5870		153600 MB/sec
Radeon RX 460 2GB		112000 MB/sec
	Difference: 41600 (37%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 5870 is a small bit (about 11%) better at AF than the Radeon RX 460 2GB. (explain)

Radeon HD 5870		68000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon RX 460 2GB		61040 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 6960 (11%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 5870 should be quite a bit (about 56%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the Radeon RX 460 2GB, and should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

Radeon HD 5870		27200 Mpixels/sec
Radeon RX 460 2GB		17440 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9760 (56%)

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 maximum amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video 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 chip could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.