GeForce GTX 460 2GB vs Radeon HD 4870 X2

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 4870 X2, which has a core clock speed of 750 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 900 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 55 nm design. It is made up of 800(160x5) SPUs, 40 Texture Address Units, and 16 ROPs.

(No game benchmarks for this combination yet.)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		160 Watts
Radeon HD 4870 X2		350 Watts
	Difference: 190 Watts (119%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the Radeon HD 4870 X2 should theoretically be a lot superior to the GeForce GTX 460 2GB in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 4870 X2		230400 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		115200 MB/sec
	Difference: 115200 (100%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4870 X2 is a lot (more or less 59%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 460 2GB. (explain)

Radeon HD 4870 X2		60000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 22200 (59%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 4870 X2 should be a bit (more or less 11%) better at AA than the GeForce GTX 460 2GB, and also should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

Radeon HD 4870 X2		24000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		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 maximum amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's 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 fill rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.