GeForce GTX 460 2GB vs Radeon HD 7790

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon HD 7790, which comes with a core clock speed of 1000 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1500 MHz. It also uses a 128-bit memory bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It features 896 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 7790		85 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		160 Watts
	Difference: 75 Watts (88%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 460 2GB should theoretically be a bit faster than the Radeon HD 7790 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		115200 MB/sec
Radeon HD 7790		96000 MB/sec
	Difference: 19200 (20%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 7790 should be much (about 48%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 460 2GB. (explain)

Radeon HD 7790		56000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 18200 (48%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 2GB is superior to the Radeon HD 7790, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 7790		16000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5600 (35%)

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: Bandwidth is the largest amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher 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 card could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core 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 fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.