Radeon HD 3870 512MB vs Radeon R9 270X

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon R9 270X, which has a core clock speed of 1000 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1400 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It features 1280 SPUs, 80 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 3870 512MB		106 Watts
Radeon R9 270X		180 Watts
	Difference: 74 Watts (70%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon R9 270X should be quite a bit faster than the Radeon HD 3870 512MB overall. (explain)

Radeon R9 270X		179200 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 121600 (211%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 270X should be a lot (approximately 545%) better at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 3870 512MB. (explain)

Radeon R9 270X		80000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		12400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 67600 (545%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the Radeon R9 270X is a better choice, by far. (explain)

Radeon R9 270X		32000 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		12400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 19600 (158%)

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 information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the better 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 can be applied in one second. This figure 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 card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly write to its 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 core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.