GeForce GTX 460 1GB vs Radeon HD 4650 512MB

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 4650 512MB, which uses a 55 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 600 MHz. The DDR2 memory is set to run at a speed of 500 MHz on this model. It features 320(64x5) SPUs along with 32 TAUs and 8 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4650 512MB		55 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		160 Watts
	Difference: 105 Watts (191%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 460 1GB should in theory perform a lot faster than the Radeon HD 4650 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		115200 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4650 512MB		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 99200 (620%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 1GB will be a lot (approximately 97%) faster with regards to AF than the Radeon HD 4650 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4650 512MB		19200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 18600 (97%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 1GB should be a lot (about 350%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 4650 512MB, and also should be able to handle higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4650 512MB		4800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 16800 (350%)

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 (counted in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster 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 per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics 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 the video card can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units 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 rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.