GeForce GT 1030 vs Radeon HD 4870 2GB

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 4870 2GB, which comes with a core clock frequency of 750 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 900 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It features 800(160x5) SPUs, 40 Texture Address Units, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 1030		30 Watts
Radeon HD 4870 2GB		150 Watts
	Difference: 120 Watts (400%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the Radeon HD 4870 2GB should theoretically be quite a bit better than the GeForce GT 1030 in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 4870 2GB		115200 MB/sec
GeForce GT 1030		49152 MB/sec
	Difference: 66048 (134%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 1030 is quite a bit (about 35%) better at AF than the Radeon HD 4870 2GB. (explain)

GeForce GT 1030		40480 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4870 2GB		30000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 10480 (35%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GT 1030 is superior to the Radeon HD 4870 2GB, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GT 1030		20240 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4870 2GB		12000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 8240 (69%)

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 (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics 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 amount of pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core 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 - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.