GeForce GTX 285 1GB vs Radeon HD 6870

Intro

Compare all of that to the Radeon HD 6870, which has a core clock frequency of 900 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1050 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 1120 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 6870		151 Watts
GeForce GTX 285 1GB		204 Watts
	Difference: 53 Watts (35%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 285 1GB should in theory be a bit superior to the Radeon HD 6870 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		158976 MB/sec
Radeon HD 6870		134400 MB/sec
	Difference: 24576 (18%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 285 1GB is just a bit (approximately 3%) more effective at AF than the Radeon HD 6870. (explain)

GeForce GTX 285 1GB		51840 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 6870		50400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 1440 (3%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 6870 should be quite a bit (more or less 39%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 285 1GB, and will be able to handle higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

Radeon HD 6870		28800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 285 1GB		20736 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 8064 (39%)

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 max amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.