GeForce GT 640 DDR3 vs Radeon R9 290

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon R9 290, which features core clock speeds of 800 MHz on the GPU, and 1250 MHz on the 4096 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 2560 SPUs along with 160 TAUs and 64 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Benchmarks

These are real-world performance benchmarks that were submitted by Hardware Compare users. The scores seen here are the average of all benchmarks submitted for each respective test and hardware.

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score

Radeon R9 290		9876 points
GeForce GT 640 DDR3		1560 points
	Difference: 8316 (533%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 640 DDR3		65 Watts
Radeon R9 290		300 Watts
	Difference: 235 Watts (362%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon R9 290 should theoretically be a lot faster than the GeForce GT 640 DDR3 overall. (explain)

Radeon R9 290		320000 MB/sec
GeForce GT 640 DDR3		57024 MB/sec
	Difference: 262976 (461%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 290 will be much (more or less 344%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 640 DDR3. (explain)

Radeon R9 290		128000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 640 DDR3		28800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 99200 (344%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 290 will be quite a bit (approximately 256%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce GT 640 DDR3, and able to handle higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

Radeon R9 290		51200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 640 DDR3		14400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 36800 (256%)

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 megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

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