GeForce GTX 460 SE vs Radeon HD 6850

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 6850, which features a core clock speed of 775 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1000 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 960 SPUs, 48 Texture Address Units, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 6850		127 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 SE		150 Watts
	Difference: 23 Watts (18%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon HD 6850 should be a small bit faster than the GeForce GTX 460 SE overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 6850		128000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		108800 MB/sec
	Difference: 19200 (18%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 6850 is a bit (more or less 19%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 460 SE. (explain)

Radeon HD 6850		37200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		31200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 6000 (19%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the Radeon HD 6850 is a better choice, not by a very large margin though. (explain)

Radeon HD 6850		24800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 460 SE		20800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4000 (19%)

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 maximum amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock 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 maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.