GeForce GTX 960 vs Radeon HD 4890 2GB

Intro

Compare all of that to the Radeon HD 4890 2GB, which has GPU core speed of 1000 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 975 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 800(160x5) SPUs, 40 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 960		120 Watts
Radeon HD 4890 2GB		190 Watts
	Difference: 70 Watts (58%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 4890 2GB should perform just a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 960 overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 4890 2GB		124800 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 960		112000 MB/sec
	Difference: 12800 (11%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960 should be quite a bit (more or less 80%) better at AF than the Radeon HD 4890 2GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		72128 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4890 2GB		40000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 32128 (80%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 960 is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		36064 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4890 2GB		16000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 20064 (125%)

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 information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once 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 high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed per 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. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.