GeForce GTX 295 vs GeForce GTX 470

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 470, which features GPU clock speed of 607 MHz, and 1280 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 837 MHz through a 320-bit bus. It also is made up of 448 Stream Processors, 56 Texture Address Units, and 40 Raster Operation Units.

Battlefield Bad Company 2

Settings:	High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 295		60 FPS
GeForce GTX 470		52 FPS
	Difference: 8 FPS (15%)

Mass Effect 2

Settings:	Maximum Quality
AA:	none
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

GeForce GTX 295		185 FPS
GeForce GTX 470		125 FPS
	Difference: 60 FPS (48%)

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GeForce GTX 295 wins

(Based entirely on the benchmarks listed above)

When combining all game benchmark scores on this page together, the GeForce GTX 295 wins overall, by 136 FPS. Please note that we do not have the results of every benchmark ever done for these cards, so the results may differ wildly in different games.

GeForce GTX 295		490 FPS
GeForce GTX 470		354 FPS
	Difference: 136 FPS (38%)

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 470		215 Watts
GeForce GTX 295		289 Watts
	Difference: 74 Watts (34%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 295 should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 470 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 295		223776 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 470		133920 MB/sec
	Difference: 89856 (67%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 295 is much (about 171%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTX 470. (explain)

GeForce GTX 295		92160 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 470		33992 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 58168 (171%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 295 will be much (more or less 33%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 470, and also should be able to handle higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 295		32256 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 470		24280 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 7976 (33%)

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 max amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at handling 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 could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number 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 filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.