Radeon HD 3470 256MB vs Radeon HD 3650

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon HD 3650, which has GPU core speed of 725 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR4 memory set to run at 800 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 120(24x5) Stream Processors, 8 TAUs, and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon HD 3470 256MB should perform a bit faster than the Radeon HD 3650 overall. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

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

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

Pixel Rate

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

Radeon HD 3470 256MB		3200 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3650		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: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's 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 figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card 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 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 colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.