Compare any two graphics cards:
GeForce GTX 460 vs Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB
IntroThe GeForce GTX 460 comes with a GPU clock speed of 675 MHz, and the 768 MB of GDDR5 memory is set to run at 900 MHz through a 192-bit bus. It also is comprised of 336 Stream Processors, 56 Texture Address Units, and 24 ROPs.Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB, which has a clock speed of 825 MHz and a GDDR4 memory speed of 1126 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is made up of 320(64x5) SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.
Display Graphs
Power Usage and Theoretical BenchmarksMemory BandwidthIn theory, the Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB should be 67% quicker than the GeForce GTX 460 overall, because of its higher data rate. (explain)
Texel RateThe GeForce GTX 460 will be a lot (about 43%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB. (explain)
Pixel RateIf running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)
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
Display Prices
Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though. Specifications
Display Specifications
Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second. Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.
Display Prices
Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.
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Comments
One Response to “GeForce GTX 460 vs Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB”[...] one i want to get. I was checking the graphs and it seems that the cards are not that different. http://www.hwcompare.com/8123/geforc...d-3870-x2-1gb/ So is the 460 much of an upgrade over the 3870x2? And is it worth me spending $200 bucks plus on [...]