Radeon HD 3870 1GB vs Radeon HD 5750 512MB

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 5750 512MB, which uses a 40 nm design. ATi has clocked the core speed at 700 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a speed of 1150 MHz on this specific model. It features 720(144x5) SPUs along with 36 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

(No game benchmarks for this combination yet.)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 5750 512MB		86 Watts
Radeon HD 3870 1GB		106 Watts
	Difference: 20 Watts (23%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon HD 5750 512MB, in theory, should be a bit faster than the Radeon HD 3870 1GB in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 5750 512MB		73600 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3870 1GB		72000 MB/sec
	Difference: 1600 (2%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 5750 512MB is a lot (approximately 103%) faster with regards to AF than the Radeon HD 3870 1GB. (explain)

Radeon HD 5750 512MB		25200 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 1GB		12400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 12800 (103%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 3870 1GB is a small bit (more or less 11%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 5750 512MB, and should be able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 1GB		12400 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 5750 512MB		11200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1200 (11%)

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 information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This 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 video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.