Radeon HD 5870 vs Radeon R9 280X

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon R9 280X, which features a clock speed of 850 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1500 MHz. It also uses a 384-bit bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It features 2048 SPUs, 128 Texture Address Units, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 5870		188 Watts
Radeon R9 280X		250 Watts
	Difference: 62 Watts (33%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon R9 280X is 88% quicker than the Radeon HD 5870 overall, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

Radeon R9 280X		288000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 5870		153600 MB/sec
	Difference: 134400 (88%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 280X is much (about 60%) better at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 5870. (explain)

Radeon R9 280X		108800 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 5870		68000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 40800 (60%)

Pixel Rate

Both cards have exactly the same pixel fill rate, so theoretically they should perform equally good at at AA, and be capable of handling the same resolutions. (explain)

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 maximum amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it must 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 anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video 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 amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.