Radeon HD 3870 512MB vs Radeon HD 5450

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 5450, which features a core clock speed of 650 MHz and a DDR3 memory speed of 800 MHz. It also features a 64-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is made up of 80(16x5) SPUs, 8 TAUs, and 4 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 5450		19 Watts
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		106 Watts
	Difference: 87 Watts (458%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 3870 512MB will be 350% quicker than the Radeon HD 5450 overall, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 512MB		57600 MB/sec
Radeon HD 5450		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 44800 (350%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 3870 512MB will be quite a bit (about 138%) better at anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 5450. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 512MB		12400 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 5450		5200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 7200 (138%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 3870 512MB is quite a bit (approximately 377%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 5450, and capable of handling higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 512MB		12400 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 5450		2600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9800 (377%)

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 information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics 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 the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in one 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 - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.