GeForce 830M vs Radeon HD 3690/3830

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 3690/3830, which features a clock speed of 668 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 828 MHz. It also features a 128-bit bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It features 320(64x5) SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 830M		25 Watts
Radeon HD 3690/3830		75 Watts
	Difference: 50 Watts (200%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 3690/3830 is 84% quicker than the GeForce 830M in general, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon HD 3690/3830		26496 MB/sec
GeForce 830M		14400 MB/sec
	Difference: 12096 (84%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 830M is quite a bit (about 54%) faster with regards to AF than the Radeon HD 3690/3830. (explain)

GeForce 830M		16464 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3690/3830		10688 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 5776 (54%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the Radeon HD 3690/3830 is superior to the GeForce 830M, by far. (explain)

Radeon HD 3690/3830		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 largest amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock 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 one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.