Radeon HD 3850 256MB vs Radeon HD 6570 (OEM) 1GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 6570 (OEM) 1GB, which makes use of a 40 nm design. AMD has set the core speed at 650 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM works at a frequency of 900 MHz on this card. It features 480 SPUs along with 24 TAUs and 8 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 6570 (OEM) 1GB		50 Watts
Radeon HD 3850 256MB		75 Watts
	Difference: 25 Watts (50%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon HD 3850 256MB should theoretically perform a lot faster than the Radeon HD 6570 (OEM) 1GB in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 3850 256MB		52992 MB/sec
Radeon HD 6570 (OEM) 1GB		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 24192 (84%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 6570 (OEM) 1GB will be quite a bit (approximately 46%) faster with regards to AF than the Radeon HD 3850 256MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 6570 (OEM) 1GB		15600 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 256MB		10688 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 4912 (46%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the Radeon HD 3850 256MB is a better choice, by far. (explain)

Radeon HD 3850 256MB		10688 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 6570 (OEM) 1GB		5200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5488 (106%)

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 (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, 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 can be processed in one second. This number 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 video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied 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 number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.