GeForce GTX 460 2GB vs Radeon HD 3870 1GB

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon HD 3870 1GB, which has GPU clock speed of 775 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR4 RAM running at 1125 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 320(64x5) SPUs, 16 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 3870 1GB		106 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		160 Watts
	Difference: 54 Watts (51%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 460 2GB should theoretically be a lot better than the Radeon HD 3870 1GB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		115200 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3870 1GB		72000 MB/sec
	Difference: 43200 (60%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 2GB will be a lot (approximately 205%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the Radeon HD 3870 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 1GB		12400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 25400 (205%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 2GB is superior to the Radeon HD 3870 1GB, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 1GB		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: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). 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 maximum fill rate.