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GeForce 8800 GT 256MB vs Radeon HD 3850 512MB

Intro

The GeForce 8800 GT 256MB makes use of a 65 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 600 MHz. The GDDR3 memory runs at a frequency of 700 MHz on this particular model. It features 112 SPUs along with 56 Texture Address Units and 16 ROPs.

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 3850 512MB, which features a GPU core clock speed of 668 MHz, and 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM running at 828 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 320(64x5) SPUs, 16 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 3850 512MB 75 Watts
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB 105 Watts
Difference: 30 Watts (40%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Radeon HD 3850 512MB should in theory be a little bit better than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 3850 512MB 52992 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB 44800 MB/sec
Difference: 8192 (18%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GT 256MB will be quite a bit (approximately 214%) more effective at AF than the Radeon HD 3850 512MB. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 256MB 33600 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 512MB 10688 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 22912 (214%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 3850 512MB should be a little bit (more or less 11%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB, and also should be capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

Radeon HD 3850 512MB 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 512MB

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 256MB Radeon HD 3850 512MB
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year Dec 2007 Nov 19, 2007
Code Name G92 RV670 PRO
Memory 256 MB 512 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: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

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

Display Prices

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GeForce 8800 GT 256MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 3850 512MB

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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