GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 vs Radeon HD 7790

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 7790, which has GPU core speed of 1000 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 1500 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also features 896 Stream Processors, 56 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 7790		85 Watts
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		202 Watts
	Difference: 117 Watts (138%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 should perform a small bit faster than the Radeon HD 7790 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		111888 MB/sec
Radeon HD 7790		96000 MB/sec
	Difference: 15888 (17%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 7790 should be quite a bit (more or less 35%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216. (explain)

Radeon HD 7790		56000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		41472 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 14528 (35%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 is the winner, though only just barely. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 Core 216		16128 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 7790		16000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 128 (1%)

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 data (measured in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster 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 are applied per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

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