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GeForce GTX 460 vs Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB
Intro
The GeForce GTX 460 features a core clock frequency of 675 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 900 MHz. It also makes use of a 192-bit memory bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 336 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 24 Raster Operation Units.Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB, which comes with a clock frequency of 825 MHz and a GDDR4 memory speed of 1126 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and uses a 55 nm design. It features 320(64x5) SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.
Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks
Memory Bandwidth
In theory, the Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 460 overall. (explain)
| Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB |
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144128 MB/sec |
| GeForce GTX 460 |
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86400 MB/sec |
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Texel Rate
The GeForce GTX 460 is quite a bit (more or less 43%) faster with regards to AF than the Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB. (explain)| GeForce GTX 460 |
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37800 Mtexels/sec |
| Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB |
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26400 Mtexels/sec |
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Pixel Rate
The Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB is much (more or less 63%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 460, and able to handle higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)| Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB |
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26400 Mpixels/sec |
| GeForce GTX 460 |
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16200 Mpixels/sec |
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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
GeForce GTX 460Amazon.com
Check prices at:
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Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GBAmazon.com
Check prices at:
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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 460 | Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturer | nVidia | AMD |
| Year | July 2010 | Jan 28, 2008 |
| Code Name | GF104 | R680 |
| Memory | 768 MB | 1024 MB (x2) |
| Core Speed | 675 MHz | 825 MHz (x2) |
| Memory Speed | 3600 MHz | 2252 MHz (x2) |
| Power (Max TDP) | 150 watts | (Unknown) watts |
| Bandwidth | 86400 MB/sec | 144128 MB/sec |
| Texel Rate | 37800 Mtexels/sec | 26400 Mtexels/sec |
| Pixel Rate | 16200 Mpixels/sec | 26400 Mpixels/sec |
| Unified Shaders | 336 | 320(64x5) (x2) |
| Texture Mapping Units | 56 | 16 (x2) |
| Render Output Units | 24 | 16 (x2) |
| Bus Type | GDDR5 | GDDR4 |
| Bus Width | 192-bit | 256-bit (x2) |
| Fab Process | 40 nm | 55 nm |
| Transistors | 1950 million | (Unknown) million |
| Bus | PCIe x16 | PCIe 2.0 x16/(internal PCIe 1.1 x16) |
| DirectX Version | DirectX 11 | DirectX 10.1 |
| OpenGL Version | OpenGL 4.1 | OpenGL 3.0 |
Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.
Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.
GeForce GTX 460Amazon.com
Check prices at:
|
Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GBAmazon.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
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 [...]