Radeon HD 3650 256MB vs Radeon HD 7970

Intro

Compare all of that to the Radeon HD 7970, which has a GPU core clock speed of 925 MHz, and 3072 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1375 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also is comprised of 2048 Stream Processors, 128 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 3650 256MB		78 Watts
Radeon HD 7970		250 Watts
	Difference: 172 Watts (221%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon HD 7970 is 931% quicker than the Radeon HD 3650 256MB overall, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon HD 7970		264000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3650 256MB		25600 MB/sec
	Difference: 238400 (931%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 7970 is quite a bit (approximately 1941%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the Radeon HD 3650 256MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 7970		118400 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3650 256MB		5800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 112600 (1941%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 7970 will be quite a bit (approximately 921%) more effective at AA than the Radeon HD 3650 256MB, and also should be able to handle higher resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon HD 7970		29600 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3650 256MB		2900 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 26700 (921%)

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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 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 anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total 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 in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.