GeForce GTX 1060 3GB vs Radeon HD 4870 X2

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 4870 X2, which has a core clock speed of 750 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 900 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It features 800(160x5) SPUs, 40 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		120 Watts
Radeon HD 4870 X2		350 Watts
	Difference: 230 Watts (192%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the Radeon HD 4870 X2 should in theory be a bit better than the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 4870 X2		230400 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		196608 MB/sec
	Difference: 33792 (17%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1060 3GB is quite a bit (more or less 81%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 4870 X2. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		108432 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4870 X2		60000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 48432 (81%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1060 3GB should be a lot (approximately 201%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 4870 X2, and should be able to handle higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		72288 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4870 X2		24000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 48288 (201%)

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 MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster 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 figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of 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 in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.