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GeForce 8800 GT 512MB vs Radeon HD 3870 1GB

Intro

The GeForce 8800 GT 512MB uses a 65 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 600 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM works at a frequency of 900 MHz on this particular model. It features 112 SPUs along with 56 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 3870 1GB, which has GPU core speed of 775 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR4 RAM running at 1125 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 320(64x5) Stream Processors, 16 Texture Address Units, and 16 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 105 Watts
Radeon HD 3870 1GB 106 Watts
Difference: 1 Watts (1%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon HD 3870 1GB should theoretically perform much faster than the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 1GB 72000 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 57600 MB/sec
Difference: 14400 (25%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GT 512MB should be quite a bit (more or less 171%) more effective at AF than the Radeon HD 3870 1GB. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 33600 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 1GB 12400 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 21200 (171%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 3870 1GB should be quite a bit (approximately 29%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB, and capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 1GB 12400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 9600 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 2800 (29%)

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

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GeForce 8800 GT 512MB

Amazon.com

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Radeon HD 3870 1GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

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Model GeForce 8800 GT 512MB Radeon HD 3870 1GB
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year Oct 2007 Nov 19, 2007
Code Name G92 RV670 XT
Memory 512 MB 1024 MB
Core Speed 600 MHz 775 MHz
Memory Speed 1800 MHz 2250 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 105 watts 106 watts
Bandwidth 57600 MB/sec 72000 MB/sec
Texel Rate 33600 Mtexels/sec 12400 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 9600 Mpixels/sec 12400 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 112 320(64x5)
Texture Mapping Units 56 16
Render Output Units 16 16
Bus Type GDDR3 GDDR4
Bus Width 256-bit 256-bit
Fab Process 65 nm 55 nm
Transistors 754 million (Unknown) million
Bus PCIe x16 2.0 PCIe 2.0 x16/AGP 8x
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total 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 applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.

Display Prices

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GeForce 8800 GT 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 3870 1GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

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