GeForce GTX 460 vs Radeon HD 3870 1GB

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon HD 3870 1GB, which has GPU core speed of 775 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR4 memory set to run at 1125 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 320(64x5) SPUs, 16 Texture Address Units, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 3870 1GB		106 Watts
GeForce GTX 460		150 Watts
	Difference: 44 Watts (42%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 460, in theory, should be just a bit faster than the Radeon HD 3870 1GB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		86400 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3870 1GB		72000 MB/sec
	Difference: 14400 (20%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 is quite a bit (approximately 205%) better at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 3870 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		37800 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 1GB		12400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 25400 (205%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 should be quite a bit (about 31%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 3870 1GB, and will be able to handle higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		16200 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 1GB		12400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3800 (31%)

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 max amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock 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 fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.