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GeForce GTX 960M vs Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB

Intro

The GeForce GTX 960M features a GPU core clock speed of 1096 MHz, and the 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory is set to run at 1000 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also features 640 Stream Processors, 40 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB, which features a core clock speed of 825 MHz and a GDDR4 memory frequency of 1126 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit bus, and uses a 55 nm design. It is made up of 320(64x5) SPUs, 16 Texture Address Units, and 16 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB should theoretically perform a lot faster than the GeForce GTX 960M overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB 144128 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 960M 64000 MB/sec
Difference: 80128 (125%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960M should be much (about 66%) more effective at AF than the Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M 43840 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB 26400 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 17440 (66%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB is superior to the GeForce GTX 960M, by a large margin. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB 26400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 960M 17536 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 8864 (51%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

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GeForce GTX 960M

Amazon.com

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Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB

Amazon.com

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Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

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Model GeForce GTX 960M Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year March 12 2015 Jan 28, 2008
Code Name GM107 R680
Memory 2048 MB 1024 MB (x2)
Core Speed 1096 MHz 825 MHz (x2)
Memory Speed 4000 MHz 2252 MHz (x2)
Power (Max TDP) 65 watts (Unknown) watts
Bandwidth 64000 MB/sec 144128 MB/sec
Texel Rate 43840 Mtexels/sec 26400 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 17536 Mpixels/sec 26400 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 640 320(64x5) (x2)
Texture Mapping Units 40 16 (x2)
Render Output Units 16 16 (x2)
Bus Type GDDR5 GDDR4
Bus Width 128-bit 256-bit (x2)
Fab Process 28 nm 55 nm
Transistors (Unknown) million (Unknown) million
Bus PCIe 3.0 x16 PCIe 2.0 x16/(internal PCIe 1.1 x16)
DirectX Version DirectX 12 DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 4.5 OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. 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 texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock 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 rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.

Display Prices

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GeForce GTX 960M

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

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