 |
 |
GeForce GTX 470 vs Radeon HD 6850
Intro
The GeForce GTX 470 uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 607 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a speed of 837 MHz on this particular card. It features 448 SPUs as well as 56 Texture Address Units and 40 ROPs.Compare all of that to the Radeon HD 6850, which makes use of a 40 nm design. AMD has set the core speed at 775 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM is set to run at a frequency of 1000 MHz on this specific card. It features 960 SPUs along with 48 TAUs and 32 ROPs.
Benchmarks
These are real-world performance benchmarks that were submitted by Hardware Compare users. The scores seen here are the average of all benchmarks submitted for each respective test and hardware.
3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score
| GeForce GTX 470 |
|
2937 points |
| Radeon HD 6850 |
|
2395 points |
|
|
Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks
Power Consumption (Max TDP)
| Radeon HD 6850 |
|
127 Watts |
| GeForce GTX 470 |
|
215 Watts |
|
|
Memory Bandwidth
Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 470 should be 5% faster than the Radeon HD 6850 overall, because of its greater data rate. (explain)
| GeForce GTX 470 |
|
133920 MB/sec |
| Radeon HD 6850 |
|
128000 MB/sec |
|
|
Texel Rate
The Radeon HD 6850 will be just a bit (about 9%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTX 470. (explain)| Radeon HD 6850 |
|
37200 Mtexels/sec |
| GeForce GTX 470 |
|
33992 Mtexels/sec |
|
|
Pixel Rate
If using a high resolution is important to you, then the Radeon HD 6850 is a better choice, though only just barely. (explain)| Radeon HD 6850 |
|
24800 Mpixels/sec |
| GeForce GTX 470 |
|
24280 Mpixels/sec |
|
|
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
GeForce GTX 470Amazon.com
Check prices at:
|
Radeon HD 6850Amazon.com
Check prices at:
|
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
| Model | GeForce GTX 470 | Radeon HD 6850 |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturer | nVidia | AMD |
| Year | March 2010 | October 2010 |
| Code Name | GF100 | Barts Pro |
| Memory | 1280 MB | 1024 MB |
| Core Speed | 607 MHz | 775 MHz |
| Memory Speed | 3348 MHz | 4000 MHz |
| Power (Max TDP) | 215 watts | 127 watts |
| Bandwidth | 133920 MB/sec | 128000 MB/sec |
| Texel Rate | 33992 Mtexels/sec | 37200 Mtexels/sec |
| Pixel Rate | 24280 Mpixels/sec | 24800 Mpixels/sec |
| Unified Shaders | 448 | 960 |
| Texture Mapping Units | 56 | 48 |
| Render Output Units | 40 | 32 |
| Bus Type | GDDR5 | GDDR5 |
| Bus Width | 320-bit | 256-bit |
| Fab Process | 40 nm | 40 nm |
| Transistors | 3000 million | 1700 million |
| Bus | PCIe x16 | PCIe x16 |
| DirectX Version | DirectX 11 | DirectX 11 |
| OpenGL Version | OpenGL 4.1 | OpenGL 4.1 |
Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics 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 amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.
GeForce GTX 470Amazon.com
Check prices at:
|
Radeon HD 6850Amazon.com
Check prices at:
|
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.
|
Comments
3 Responses to “GeForce GTX 470 vs Radeon HD 6850”[...] [...]
Radeon HD 6850 is better
I have both cards and I can say without a doubt that the GTX470 is noticably faster, as well as being able to handle high resolutions better and being better at antialiasing. I must run most games a whole tier lower for graphics settings on the radeon card (I.e. medium for the 6850, whereas the 470 can handle high for the same game)