GeForce GTX 460 2GB vs Radeon HD 3850 512MB

Intro

Compare all of that to the Radeon HD 3850 512MB, which comes with core speeds of 668 MHz on the GPU, and 828 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR3 memory. 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 3850 512MB		75 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		160 Watts
	Difference: 85 Watts (113%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 460 2GB, in theory, should perform a lot faster than the Radeon HD 3850 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		115200 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3850 512MB		52992 MB/sec
	Difference: 62208 (117%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 2GB should be a lot (about 254%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 3850 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 512MB		10688 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 27112 (254%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 2GB is quite a bit (more or less 102%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 3850 512MB, and capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 512MB		10688 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 10912 (102%)

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 max amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.