Radeon HD 3650 256MB vs Radeon R9 280X

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon R9 280X, which uses a 28 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 850 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a speed of 1500 MHz on this particular model. It features 2048 SPUs along with 128 TAUs and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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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

In theory, the Radeon R9 280X will be 1025% quicker than the Radeon HD 3650 256MB overall, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 280X should be quite a bit (about 1776%) better at anisotropic 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 is quite a bit (more or less 838%) more effective at FSAA than the Radeon HD 3650 256MB, and also capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (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 largest amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that 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 number of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.