GeForce GTX 460 SE vs Radeon HD 3470 512MB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 3470 512MB, which has a clock speed of 800 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 950 MHz. It also uses a 128-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It features 40(8x5) SPUs, 4 Texture Address Units, and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 460 SE should theoretically be much superior to the Radeon HD 3470 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		108800 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3470 512MB		30400 MB/sec
	Difference: 78400 (258%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 SE should be a lot (approximately 875%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 3470 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		31200 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 512MB		3200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 28000 (875%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 SE is a lot (approximately 550%) more effective at AA than the Radeon HD 3470 512MB, and also should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		20800 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 512MB		3200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 17600 (550%)

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 largest amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better 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 texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total 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 texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines 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 rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.