Radeon HD 3650 256MB vs Radeon R9 280X

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon R9 280X, which has GPU clock speed of 850 MHz, and 3072 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1500 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also is comprised of 2048 SPUs, 128 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 3650 256MB		78 Watts
Radeon R9 280X		250 Watts
	Difference: 172 Watts (221%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon R9 280X should theoretically be much faster than the Radeon HD 3650 256MB overall. (explain)

Radeon R9 280X		288000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3650 256MB		25600 MB/sec
	Difference: 262400 (1025%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 280X will be quite a bit (approximately 1776%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the Radeon HD 3650 256MB. (explain)

Radeon R9 280X		108800 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3650 256MB		5800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 103000 (1776%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 280X should be a lot (approximately 838%) more effective at FSAA than the Radeon HD 3650 256MB, and also will be able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

Radeon R9 280X		27200 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3650 256MB		2900 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 24300 (838%)

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 maximum amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, 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 are applied in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video 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 number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.