GeForce GTX 465 vs Radeon HD 4850 X2 1GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 4850 X2 1GB, which uses a 55 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 625 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM is set to run at a frequency of 993 MHz on this particular model. It features 800(160x5) SPUs as well as 40 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 465		200 Watts
Radeon HD 4850 X2 1GB		250 Watts
	Difference: 50 Watts (25%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the Radeon HD 4850 X2 1GB should be a lot faster than the GeForce GTX 465 overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 4850 X2 1GB		127104 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 465		102592 MB/sec
	Difference: 24512 (24%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4850 X2 1GB should be a lot (about 87%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTX 465. (explain)

Radeon HD 4850 X2 1GB		50000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 465		26708 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 23292 (87%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 4850 X2 1GB should be just a bit (approximately 3%) better at AA than the GeForce GTX 465, and should be able to handle higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

Radeon HD 4850 X2 1GB		20000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 465		19424 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 576 (3%)

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: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.