GeForce GTX 960M vs Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB, which has a core clock speed of 625 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 993 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is comprised of 800(160x5) SPUs, 40 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 960M		65 Watts
Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB		250 Watts
	Difference: 185 Watts (285%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB should be 99% faster than the GeForce GTX 960M in general, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB		127104 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 960M		64000 MB/sec
	Difference: 63104 (99%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB should be a little bit (approximately 14%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 960M. (explain)

Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB		50000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 960M		43840 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 6160 (14%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB should be just a bit (approximately 14%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce GTX 960M, and also will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB		20000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 960M		17536 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2464 (14%)

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

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR memory, it must 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 anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the 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 maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. 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 also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.