GeForce GTX 285 2GB vs GeForce GTX 470

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 470, which comes with a clock speed of 607 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 837 MHz. It also features a 320-bit bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It features 448 SPUs, 56 Texture Address Units, and 40 Raster Operation Units.

(No game benchmarks for this combination yet.)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 285 2GB		204 Watts
GeForce GTX 470		215 Watts
	Difference: 11 Watts (5%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 285 2GB should theoretically be a small bit better than the GeForce GTX 470 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 285 2GB		158976 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 470		133920 MB/sec
	Difference: 25056 (19%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 285 2GB will be much (about 53%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTX 470. (explain)

GeForce GTX 285 2GB		51840 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 470		33992 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 17848 (53%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 470 should be a little bit (more or less 17%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce GTX 285 2GB, and also able to handle higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		24280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 285 2GB		20736 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3544 (17%)

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: Bandwidth is the max amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the better 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 is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics 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 most pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines 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 rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.