GeForce GTX 560 vs Radeon HD 4890 2GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 4890 2GB, which uses a 55 nm design. AMD has clocked the core frequency at 1000 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a frequency of 975 MHz on this particular model. It features 800(160x5) SPUs along with 40 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 560		150 Watts
Radeon HD 4890 2GB		190 Watts
	Difference: 40 Watts (27%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 560 should theoretically perform a bit faster than the Radeon HD 4890 2GB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		128128 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4890 2GB		124800 MB/sec
	Difference: 3328 (3%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 should be a small bit (about 13%) more effective at AF than the Radeon HD 4890 2GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		45360 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4890 2GB		40000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 5360 (13%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 is quite a bit (approximately 62%) better at FSAA than the Radeon HD 4890 2GB, and capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		25920 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4890 2GB		16000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9920 (62%)

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 data (measured in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.