Radeon HD 3870 512MB vs Radeon HD 4850 512MB

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 4850 512MB, which has core clock speeds of 625 MHz on the GPU, and 993 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR3 memory. It features 800(160x5) SPUs as well as 40 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

F.E.A.R. 2

Settings:	Maximum Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Unknown (Source)

Radeon HD 4850 512MB		61 FPS
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		35 FPS
	Difference: 26 FPS (74%)

Fallout 3

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1680x1050
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Charts Test Rig (Source)

Radeon HD 4850 512MB		55 FPS
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		32 FPS
	Difference: 23 FPS (72%)

Far Cry 2

Settings:	Very High Qualty
AA:	none
AF:	none
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Intel Core i7-920,3 x 2 GB Ram,Windows Vista Ultimate 32 Bit SP1 (Source)

Radeon HD 4850 512MB		50 FPS
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		31 FPS
	Difference: 19 FPS (61%)

Left4Dead

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

Radeon HD 4850 512MB		54 FPS
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		28 FPS
	Difference: 26 FPS (93%)

Left4Dead

Settings:	Very High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Charts Test Rig (Source)

Radeon HD 4850 512MB		59 FPS
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		32 FPS
	Difference: 27 FPS (84%)

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X

Settings:	High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1680x1050
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Charts Test Rig (Source)

Radeon HD 4850 512MB		29 FPS
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		19 FPS
	Difference: 10 FPS (53%)

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Radeon HD 4850 512MB wins

(Based entirely on the benchmarks listed above)

When combining all game benchmark scores on this page together, the Radeon HD 4850 512MB wins overall, by 167 FPS. Please note that we do not have the results of every benchmark ever done for these cards, so the results may differ wildly in different games.

Radeon HD 4850 512MB		391 FPS
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		224 FPS
	Difference: 167 FPS (75%)

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 3870 512MB		106 Watts
Radeon HD 4850 512MB		110 Watts
	Difference: 4 Watts (4%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon HD 4850 512MB, in theory, should perform just a bit faster than the Radeon HD 3870 512MB in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 4850 512MB		63552 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 5952 (10%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4850 512MB should be quite a bit (approximately 102%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 3870 512MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 4850 512MB		25000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		12400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 12600 (102%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 3870 512MB will be much (more or less 24%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 4850 512MB, and also will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 512MB		12400 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4850 512MB		10000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2400 (24%)

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 max amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at handling 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 card could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.