GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB vs Radeon HD 3870 512MB

Intro

Compare all of that to the Radeon HD 3870 512MB, which features a clock speed of 775 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 900 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is made up of 320(64x5) SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

F.E.A.R. 2

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

Radeon HD 3870 512MB		35 FPS
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		30 FPS
	Difference: 5 FPS (17%)

Fallout 3

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

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		38 FPS
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		32 FPS
	Difference: 6 FPS (19%)

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 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		31 FPS
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		31 FPS
	Difference: 0 FPS (0%)

Left4Dead

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

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		32 FPS
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		28 FPS
	Difference: 4 FPS (14%)

Left4Dead

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

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		38 FPS
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		32 FPS
	Difference: 6 FPS (19%)

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 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		30 FPS
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		19 FPS
	Difference: 11 FPS (58%)

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GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB wins

(Based entirely on the benchmarks listed above)

When combining all game benchmark scores on this page together, the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB wins overall, by 28 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 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		237 FPS
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		209 FPS
	Difference: 28 FPS (13%)

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 3870 512MB		106 Watts
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		143 Watts
	Difference: 37 Watts (35%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB should theoretically perform a bit faster than the Radeon HD 3870 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		63360 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 5760 (10%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB is much (more or less 99%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 3870 512MB. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		24624 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		12400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 12224 (99%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 3870 512MB is much (about 21%) better at AA than the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB, and will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 512MB		12400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		10260 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2140 (21%)

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 maximum amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.