GeForce 830M vs Radeon HD 3850 512MB

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 3850 512MB, which features a core clock frequency of 668 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 828 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is comprised of 320(64x5) SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 830M		25 Watts
Radeon HD 3850 512MB		75 Watts
	Difference: 50 Watts (200%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 3850 512MB is 268% quicker than the GeForce 830M overall, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

Radeon HD 3850 512MB		52992 MB/sec
GeForce 830M		14400 MB/sec
	Difference: 38592 (268%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 830M is a lot (more or less 54%) more effective at AF than the Radeon HD 3850 512MB. (explain)

GeForce 830M		16464 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 512MB		10688 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 5776 (54%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 3850 512MB should be quite a bit (more or less 30%) better at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 830M, and also will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon HD 3850 512MB		10688 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 830M		8232 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2456 (30%)

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 (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. 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 high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that 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 amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.