Radeon HD 3850 256MB vs Radeon R9 270X

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon R9 270X, which features a clock frequency of 1000 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1400 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It features 1280 SPUs, 80 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 3850 256MB		75 Watts
Radeon R9 270X		180 Watts
	Difference: 105 Watts (140%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon R9 270X should be much faster than the Radeon HD 3850 256MB in general. (explain)

Radeon R9 270X		179200 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3850 256MB		52992 MB/sec
	Difference: 126208 (238%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 270X should be much (approximately 649%) better at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 3850 256MB. (explain)

Radeon R9 270X		80000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 256MB		10688 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 69312 (649%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 270X should be quite a bit (approximately 199%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 3850 256MB, and also able to handle higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

Radeon R9 270X		32000 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 256MB		10688 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 21312 (199%)

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 information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core 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 applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.