GeForce GTX 275 vs Radeon HD 4870 2GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 4870 2GB, which comes with GPU core speed of 750 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 900 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 800(160x5) Stream Processors, 40 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4870 2GB		150 Watts
GeForce GTX 275		219 Watts
	Difference: 69 Watts (46%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 275 should be a small bit faster than the Radeon HD 4870 2GB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 275		127008 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4870 2GB		115200 MB/sec
	Difference: 11808 (10%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 275 is much (about 69%) more effective at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 4870 2GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 275		50640 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4870 2GB		30000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 20640 (69%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 275 is superior to the Radeon HD 4870 2GB, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 275		17724 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4870 2GB		12000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5724 (48%)

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 information (counted in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core 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 one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. 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 quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.