Radeon HD 3870 512MB vs Radeon HD 5450

Intro

Compare all of that to the Radeon HD 5450, which makes use of a 40 nm design. AMD has set the core speed at 650 MHz. The DDR3 memory works at a speed of 800 MHz on this specific model. It features 80(16x5) SPUs as well as 8 Texture Address Units and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

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

Theoretically, the Radeon HD 3870 512MB should be quite a bit faster than the Radeon HD 5450 overall. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 3870 512MB is much (more or less 138%) faster with regards to texture 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 will be much (approximately 377%) better at AA than the Radeon HD 5450, and able to handle higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (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: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called 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 ability to reach the max fill rate.