GeForce GTX 295 vs Radeon RX 480 4GB

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon RX 480 4GB, which features a clock frequency of 1120 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1750 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 14 nm design. It features 2304 SPUs, 144 Texture Address Units, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon RX 480 4GB		150 Watts
GeForce GTX 295		289 Watts
	Difference: 139 Watts (93%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the Radeon RX 480 4GB should be just a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 295 in general. (explain)

Radeon RX 480 4GB		229376 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 295		223776 MB/sec
	Difference: 5600 (3%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon RX 480 4GB should be much (more or less 75%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 295. (explain)

Radeon RX 480 4GB		161280 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 295		92160 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 69120 (75%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the Radeon RX 480 4GB is superior to the GeForce GTX 295, but it probably won't make a huge difference. (explain)

Radeon RX 480 4GB		35840 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 295		32256 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3584 (11%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should 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 AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to its 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 clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.