GeForce GTX 460 2GB vs Radeon HD 4730

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 4730, which has a GPU core clock speed of 700 MHz, and 512 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 900 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is comprised of 640(128x5) Stream Processors, 32 TAUs, and 8 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4730		140 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		160 Watts
	Difference: 20 Watts (14%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 460 2GB should in theory be a lot faster than the Radeon HD 4730 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		115200 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4730		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 57600 (100%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 2GB should be quite a bit (more or less 69%) more effective at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 4730. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4730		22400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 15400 (69%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 2GB will be quite a bit (approximately 286%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 4730, and also will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4730		5600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 16000 (286%)

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 largest amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total number 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 processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs 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 fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.