GeForce 9800 GTX+ vs Radeon HD 3870 512MB

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 3870 512MB, which uses a 55 nm design. ATi has set the core speed at 775 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM works at a speed of 900 MHz on this specific card. It features 320(64x5) SPUs as well as 16 Texture Address Units and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

F.E.A.R. 2

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

GeForce 9800 GTX+		48 FPS
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		35 FPS
	Difference: 13 FPS (37%)

Fallout 3

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

GeForce 9800 GTX+		67 FPS
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		32 FPS
	Difference: 35 FPS (109%)

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)

GeForce 9800 GTX+		46 FPS
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		31 FPS
	Difference: 15 FPS (48%)

Left4Dead

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

GeForce 9800 GTX+		46 FPS
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		28 FPS
	Difference: 18 FPS (64%)

Left4Dead

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

GeForce 9800 GTX+		57 FPS
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		32 FPS
	Difference: 25 FPS (78%)

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)

GeForce 9800 GTX+		41 FPS
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		19 FPS
	Difference: 22 FPS (116%)

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GeForce 9800 GTX+ wins

(Based entirely on the benchmarks listed above)

When combining all game benchmark scores on this page together, the GeForce 9800 GTX+ wins overall, by 128 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.

GeForce 9800 GTX+		305 FPS
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		177 FPS
	Difference: 128 FPS (72%)

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 3870 512MB		106 Watts
GeForce 9800 GTX+		145 Watts
	Difference: 39 Watts (37%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce 9800 GTX+ should theoretically be quite a bit superior to the Radeon HD 3870 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX+		70400 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 12800 (22%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GTX+ is quite a bit (more or less 281%) better at anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 3870 512MB. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX+		47232 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		12400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 34832 (281%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the Radeon HD 3870 512MB is a better choice, though not by far. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 512MB		12400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GTX+		11808 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 592 (5%)

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 (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This 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 card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.