GeForce GTX 260 vs Radeon RX 470 4GB

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon RX 470 4GB, which comes with a core clock frequency of 926 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1650 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 14 nm design. It features 2048 SPUs, 128 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon RX 470 4GB		120 Watts
GeForce GTX 260		182 Watts
	Difference: 62 Watts (52%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Radeon RX 470 4GB should in theory be much superior to the GeForce GTX 260 in general. (explain)

Radeon RX 470 4GB		211200 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 260		111888 MB/sec
	Difference: 99312 (89%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon RX 470 4GB should be quite a bit (about 222%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 260. (explain)

Radeon RX 470 4GB		118528 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 260		36864 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 81664 (222%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon RX 470 4GB is much (about 84%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 260, and also able to handle higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

Radeon RX 470 4GB		29632 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260		16128 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 13504 (84%)

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 maximum amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, 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 can be processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card 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 a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.