GeForce GTX 285 2GB vs Radeon HD 6850

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 6850, which has GPU core speed of 775 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 1000 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 960 SPUs, 48 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 6850		127 Watts
GeForce GTX 285 2GB		204 Watts
	Difference: 77 Watts (61%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTX 285 2GB should perform much faster than the Radeon HD 6850 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 285 2GB		158976 MB/sec
Radeon HD 6850		128000 MB/sec
	Difference: 30976 (24%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 285 2GB is much (more or less 39%) better at AF than the Radeon HD 6850. (explain)

GeForce GTX 285 2GB		51840 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 6850		37200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 14640 (39%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the Radeon HD 6850 is the winner, not by a very large margin though. (explain)

Radeon HD 6850		24800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 285 2GB		20736 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4064 (20%)

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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better 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 number of texture units 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 per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called 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, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.