GeForce GT 320 vs Radeon HD 4790

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 4790, which makes use of a 55 nm design. AMD has clocked the core speed at 600 MHz. The GDDR5 memory is set to run at a frequency of 800 MHz on this specific model. It features 640(128x5) SPUs along with 32 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Radeon HD 4790 should theoretically be much better than the GeForce GT 320 in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 4790		102400 MB/sec
GeForce GT 320		25280 MB/sec
	Difference: 77120 (305%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4790 will be much (about 48%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 320. (explain)

Radeon HD 4790		19200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 320		12960 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 6240 (48%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 4790 is a lot (about 122%) more effective at AA than the GeForce GT 320, and also will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon HD 4790		9600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 320		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5280 (122%)

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 max amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core 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 a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.