Radeon HD 4870 1GB vs Radeon R9 M390X

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon R9 M390X, which has a core clock speed of 723 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1250 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It is made up of 2048 SPUs, 128 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon R9 M390X		125 Watts
Radeon HD 4870 1GB		150 Watts
	Difference: 25 Watts (20%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon R9 M390X should in theory perform a lot faster than the Radeon HD 4870 1GB in general. (explain)

Radeon R9 M390X		160000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4870 1GB		115200 MB/sec
	Difference: 44800 (39%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 M390X is much (approximately 208%) faster with regards to AF than the Radeon HD 4870 1GB. (explain)

Radeon R9 M390X		92544 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4870 1GB		30000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 62544 (208%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 M390X should be quite a bit (about 93%) faster with regards to AA than the Radeon HD 4870 1GB, and capable of handling higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

Radeon R9 M390X		23136 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4870 1GB		12000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 11136 (93%)

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 maximum amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster 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 texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better 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 most pixels the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. 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 - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.