Radeon HD 3470 256MB vs Radeon HD 3650 256MB

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon HD 3650 256MB, which has a clock speed of 725 MHz and a DDR2 memory speed of 800 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is comprised of 120(24x5) SPUs, 8 TAUs, and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 3470 256MB is 19% quicker than the Radeon HD 3650 256MB in general, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

Radeon HD 3470 256MB		30400 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3650 256MB		25600 MB/sec
	Difference: 4800 (19%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 3650 256MB is quite a bit (approximately 81%) more effective at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 3470 256MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 3650 256MB		5800 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 256MB		3200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2600 (81%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 3470 256MB will be a little bit (approximately 10%) more effective at FSAA than the Radeon HD 3650 256MB, and capable of handling higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

Radeon HD 3470 256MB		3200 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3650 256MB		2900 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 300 (10%)

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 largest amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of 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 applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.