GeForce GTX 460 1GB vs Radeon HD 4870 X2

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon HD 4870 X2, which features GPU clock speed of 750 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 900 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 800(160x5) SPUs, 40 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		160 Watts
Radeon HD 4870 X2		350 Watts
	Difference: 190 Watts (119%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Radeon HD 4870 X2 should theoretically be much better than the GeForce GTX 460 1GB overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 4870 X2		230400 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		115200 MB/sec
	Difference: 115200 (100%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4870 X2 is quite a bit (approximately 59%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 460 1GB. (explain)

Radeon HD 4870 X2		60000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 22200 (59%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the Radeon HD 4870 X2 is the winner, but it probably won't make a huge difference. (explain)

Radeon HD 4870 X2		24000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2400 (11%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the max amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. 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 is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.