GeForce GTX 460 2GB vs Radeon HD 7870 XT

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 7870 XT, which has a core clock speed of 925 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1500 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It features 1536 SPUs, 96 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		160 Watts
Radeon HD 7870 XT		185 Watts
	Difference: 25 Watts (16%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 7870 XT will be 67% quicker than the GeForce GTX 460 2GB overall, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon HD 7870 XT		192000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		115200 MB/sec
	Difference: 76800 (67%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 7870 XT should be quite a bit (approximately 135%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 460 2GB. (explain)

Radeon HD 7870 XT		88800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 51000 (135%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the Radeon HD 7870 XT is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

Radeon HD 7870 XT		29600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 8000 (37%)

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 data (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better 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 maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. 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 is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.