Radeon HD 3470 512MB vs Radeon R9 M280X

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon R9 M280X, which uses a 28 nm design. AMD has clocked the core speed at 900 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a speed of 1375 MHz on this particular model. It features 896 SPUs along with 56 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon R9 M280X, in theory, should perform much faster than the Radeon HD 3470 512MB overall. (explain)

Radeon R9 M280X		88000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3470 512MB		30400 MB/sec
	Difference: 57600 (189%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 M280X is quite a bit (about 1475%) better at AF than the Radeon HD 3470 512MB. (explain)

Radeon R9 M280X		50400 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 512MB		3200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 47200 (1475%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 M280X should be a lot (more or less 350%) faster with regards to AA than the Radeon HD 3470 512MB, and also able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

Radeon R9 M280X		14400 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 512MB		3200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 11200 (350%)

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 data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses 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, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core 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 a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.