GeForce GTX 460 1GB vs Radeon HD 3870 512MB

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon HD 3870 512MB, which makes use of a 55 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 775 MHz. The GDDR3 memory is set to run at a speed of 900 MHz on this particular model. It features 320(64x5) SPUs along with 16 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 3870 512MB		106 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		160 Watts
	Difference: 54 Watts (51%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 460 1GB should theoretically be quite a bit superior to the Radeon HD 3870 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		115200 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 57600 (100%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 1GB will be a lot (more or less 205%) better at AF than the Radeon HD 3870 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		12400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 25400 (205%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 1GB is a lot (approximately 74%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 3870 512MB, and also should be able to handle higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		12400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9200 (74%)

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 data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per 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 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 most pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines 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 also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.