GeForce GTX 660 vs Radeon HD 3850 256MB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 3850 256MB, which features GPU core speed of 668 MHz, and 256 MB of GDDR3 RAM running at 828 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 320(64x5) SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 3850 256MB		75 Watts
GeForce GTX 660		140 Watts
	Difference: 65 Watts (87%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 660 should in theory perform quite a bit faster than the Radeon HD 3850 256MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		144192 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3850 256MB		52992 MB/sec
	Difference: 91200 (172%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 should be much (approximately 634%) more effective at AF than the Radeon HD 3850 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		78400 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 256MB		10688 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 67712 (634%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 is much (approximately 120%) better at anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 3850 256MB, and also able to handle higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660		23520 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 256MB		10688 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 12832 (120%)

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 megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR memory, it must 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 anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.