Radeon HD 3470 256MB vs Radeon R5 M230

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon R5 M230, which comes with a core clock frequency of 780 MHz and a DDR3 memory speed of 1000 MHz. It also makes use of a 64-bit bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 320 SPUs, 20 TAUs, and 4 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the Radeon HD 3470 256MB should theoretically be a lot better than the Radeon R5 M230 overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 3470 256MB		30400 MB/sec
Radeon R5 M230		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 14400 (90%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R5 M230 is quite a bit (about 388%) more effective at AF than the Radeon HD 3470 256MB. (explain)

Radeon R5 M230		15600 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 256MB		3200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 12400 (388%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the Radeon HD 3470 256MB is the winner, but not by far. (explain)

Radeon HD 3470 256MB		3200 Mpixels/sec
Radeon R5 M230		3120 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 80 (3%)

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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, 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 higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, 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 can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.