GeForce GTX 480 vs Radeon HD 3470 256MB

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 3470 256MB, which has a GPU core clock speed of 800 MHz, and 256 MB of DDR2 memory running at 950 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also features 40(8x5) Stream Processors, 4 TAUs, and 4 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 480 should in theory be quite a bit superior to the Radeon HD 3470 256MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3470 256MB		30400 MB/sec
	Difference: 147008 (484%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 is quite a bit (approximately 1213%) more effective at AF than the Radeon HD 3470 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 256MB		3200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 38800 (1213%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 480 is superior to the Radeon HD 3470 256MB, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 256MB		3200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 30400 (950%)

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 information (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock 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 applied per second.

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