Radeon HD 3870 1GB vs Radeon HD 5750 1GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 5750 1GB, which uses a 40 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 700 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a speed of 1150 MHz on this specific card. It features 720(144x5) SPUs along with 36 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

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

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Radeon HD 5750 1GB should theoretically be a bit superior to the Radeon HD 3870 1GB in general. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 5750 1GB will be quite a bit (approximately 103%) more effective at AF than the Radeon HD 3870 1GB. (explain)

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

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 3870 1GB is a little bit (approximately 11%) more effective at FSAA than the Radeon HD 5750 1GB, and capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 1GB		12400 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 5750 1GB		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 largest amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. 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 rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.