Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB vs Radeon RX 470 4GB

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon RX 470 4GB, which features GPU clock speed of 926 MHz, and 4096 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1650 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 2048 SPUs, 128 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the Radeon RX 470 4GB should theoretically be quite a bit superior to the Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB overall. (explain)

Radeon RX 470 4GB		211200 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB		115200 MB/sec
	Difference: 96000 (83%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon RX 470 4GB will be a lot (more or less 349%) more effective at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB. (explain)

Radeon RX 470 4GB		118528 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB		26400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 92128 (349%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon RX 470 4GB will be a bit (approximately 12%) better at AA than the Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB, and also capable of handling higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

Radeon RX 470 4GB		29632 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB		26400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3232 (12%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core 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 also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.