GeForce GTX 275 vs Radeon HD 4870 512MB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 4870 512MB, which features core clock speeds of 750 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 800(160x5) SPUs as well as 40 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4870 512MB		150 Watts
GeForce GTX 275		219 Watts
	Difference: 69 Watts (46%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 275 should in theory be a little bit superior to the Radeon HD 4870 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 275		127008 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4870 512MB		115200 MB/sec
	Difference: 11808 (10%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 275 is a lot (more or less 69%) better at AF than the Radeon HD 4870 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 275		50640 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4870 512MB		30000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 20640 (69%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 275 is the winner, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 275		17724 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4870 512MB		12000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5724 (48%)

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 maximum amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.