Radeon HD 3650 256MB vs Radeon HD 7870

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon HD 7870, which makes use of a 28 nm design. AMD has clocked the core frequency at 1000 MHz. The GDDR5 memory is set to run at a speed of 1200 MHz on this model. It features 1280 SPUs along with 80 TAUs and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 3650 256MB		78 Watts
Radeon HD 7870		175 Watts
	Difference: 97 Watts (124%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon HD 7870, in theory, should perform a lot faster than the Radeon HD 3650 256MB in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 7870		153600 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3650 256MB		25600 MB/sec
	Difference: 128000 (500%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 7870 is much (approximately 1279%) more effective at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 3650 256MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 7870		80000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3650 256MB		5800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 74200 (1279%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the Radeon HD 7870 is a better choice, by far. (explain)

Radeon HD 7870		32000 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3650 256MB		2900 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 29100 (1003%)

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 data (counted in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the 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 most pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.