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GeForce 8800 GT 256MB vs Radeon HD 3850 256MB

Intro

The GeForce 8800 GT 256MB comes with a GPU core clock speed of 600 MHz, and the 256 MB of GDDR3 RAM is set to run at 700 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is comprised of 112 Stream Processors, 56 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Compare that to the Radeon HD 3850 256MB, which has a clock frequency of 668 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 828 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 55 nm design. It is comprised of 320(64x5) SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 3850 256MB 75 Watts
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB 105 Watts
Difference: 30 Watts (40%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon HD 3850 256MB will be 18% quicker than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB in general, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon HD 3850 256MB 52992 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB 44800 MB/sec
Difference: 8192 (18%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GT 256MB is much (more or less 214%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 3850 256MB. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 256MB 33600 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 256MB 10688 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 22912 (214%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 3850 256MB will be a little bit (more or less 11%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB, and also will be able to handle higher resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon HD 3850 256MB 10688 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB 9600 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 1088 (11%)

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 256MB

Amazon.com

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Radeon HD 3850 256MB

Amazon.com

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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 256MB Radeon HD 3850 256MB
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year Dec 2007 Nov 19, 2007
Code Name G92 RV670 PRO
Memory 256 MB 256 MB
Core Speed 600 MHz 668 MHz
Memory Speed 1400 MHz 1656 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 105 watts 75 watts
Bandwidth 44800 MB/sec 52992 MB/sec
Texel Rate 33600 Mtexels/sec 10688 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 9600 Mpixels/sec 10688 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 112 320(64x5)
Texture Mapping Units 56 16
Render Output Units 16 16
Bus Type GDDR3 GDDR3
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: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it should 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 anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the clock 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 lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.

Display Prices

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GeForce 8800 GT 256MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 3850 256MB

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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