Compare any two graphics cards:
VS

GeForce GTX 460 2GB vs Radeon HD 4870 512MB

Intro

The GeForce GTX 460 2GB comes with a GPU core clock speed of 675 MHz, and the 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory is set to run at 900 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is comprised of 336 SPUs, 56 Texture Address Units, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 4870 512MB, which features a core clock speed of 750 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 900 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit bus, and uses a 55 nm design. It is comprised of 800(160x5) SPUs, 40 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4870 512MB 150 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 2GB 160 Watts
Difference: 10 Watts (7%)

Memory Bandwidth

Both cards have the exact same bandwidth, so theoretically they should perform exactly the same. (explain)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 2GB is quite a bit (more or less 26%) more effective at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 4870 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB 37800 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4870 512MB 30000 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 7800 (26%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 2GB should be much (more or less 80%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 4870 512MB, and also able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB 21600 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4870 512MB 12000 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 9600 (80%)

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

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce GTX 460 2GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 4870 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

Display Specifications

Hide Specifications

Model GeForce GTX 460 2GB Radeon HD 4870 512MB
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year July 2010 Jun 25, 2008
Code Name GF104 RV770 XT
Memory 2048 MB 512 MB
Core Speed 675 MHz 750 MHz
Memory Speed 3600 MHz 3600 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 160 watts 150 watts
Bandwidth 115200 MB/sec 115200 MB/sec
Texel Rate 37800 Mtexels/sec 30000 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 21600 Mpixels/sec 12000 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 336 800(160x5)
Texture Mapping Units 56 40
Render Output Units 32 16
Bus Type GDDR5 GDDR5
Bus Width 256-bit 256-bit
Fab Process 40 nm 55 nm
Transistors 1950 million 956 million
Bus PCIe x16 PCIe 2.0 x16
DirectX Version DirectX 11 DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 4.1 OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip 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 amount of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce GTX 460 2GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 4870 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Comments

Be the first to leave a comment!

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


*

WordPress Anti Spam by WP-SpamShield