GeForce GTS 450 vs Radeon HD 6950 2GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 6950 2GB, which uses a 40 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 800 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM runs at a speed of 1250 MHz on this specific card. It features 1408 SPUs as well as 88 TAUs and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 450		106 Watts
Radeon HD 6950 2GB		200 Watts
	Difference: 94 Watts (89%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon HD 6950 2GB should theoretically perform much faster than the GeForce GTS 450 in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950 2GB		160000 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 450		57728 MB/sec
	Difference: 102272 (177%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 6950 2GB should be quite a bit (more or less 181%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTS 450. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950 2GB		70400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 450		25056 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 45344 (181%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the Radeon HD 6950 2GB is superior to the GeForce GTS 450, and very much so. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950 2GB		25600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 450		12528 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 13072 (104%)

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 max amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of 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 better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.