GeForce GTX 460 2GB vs Radeon HD 7790

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon HD 7790, which comes with a GPU core clock speed of 1000 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 1500 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is comprised of 896 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 7790		85 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		160 Watts
	Difference: 75 Watts (88%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 460 2GB should in theory perform just a bit faster than the Radeon HD 7790 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		115200 MB/sec
Radeon HD 7790		96000 MB/sec
	Difference: 19200 (20%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 7790 will be a lot (approximately 48%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 460 2GB. (explain)

Radeon HD 7790		56000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 18200 (48%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 2GB should be quite a bit (about 35%) more effective at FSAA than the Radeon HD 7790, and also should be able to handle higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 7790		16000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5600 (35%)

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 (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once 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, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.