Compare any two graphics cards:
VS

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB vs Radeon HD 3850 1GB

Intro

The GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB features a GPU core speed of 513 MHz, and the 320 MB of GDDR3 RAM runs at 792 MHz through a 320-bit bus. It also is comprised of 96 SPUs, 48 Texture Address Units, and 20 Raster Operation Units.

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 3850 1GB, which comes with a clock speed of 668 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 828 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit bus, and uses a 55 nm design. It features 320(64x5) SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 3850 1GB 75 Watts
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB 143 Watts
Difference: 68 Watts (91%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB will be 20% quicker than the Radeon HD 3850 1GB overall, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB 63360 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3850 1GB 52992 MB/sec
Difference: 10368 (20%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB is much (more or less 130%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 3850 1GB. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB 24624 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 1GB 10688 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 13936 (130%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the Radeon HD 3850 1GB is a better choice, but it probably won't make a huge difference. (explain)

Radeon HD 3850 1GB 10688 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB 10260 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 428 (4%)

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

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 3850 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

Display Specifications

Hide Specifications

Model GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB Radeon HD 3850 1GB
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year Feb 2007 Nov 19, 2007
Code Name G80 RV670 PRO
Memory 320 MB 1024 MB
Core Speed 513 MHz 668 MHz
Memory Speed 1584 MHz 1656 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 143 watts 75 watts
Bandwidth 63360 MB/sec 52992 MB/sec
Texel Rate 24624 Mtexels/sec 10688 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 10260 Mpixels/sec 10688 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 96 320(64x5)
Texture Mapping Units 48 16
Render Output Units 20 16
Bus Type GDDR3 GDDR3
Bus Width 320-bit 256-bit
Fab Process 90 nm 55 nm
Transistors 681 million (Unknown) million
Bus PCIe x16 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 (measured in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the better 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 can be applied in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock 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 a second.

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

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 320MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 3850 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.

Comments

Be the first to leave a comment!

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


*

WordPress Anti Spam by WP-SpamShield