Compare any two graphics cards:
VS

Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB vs Radeon HD 4870 X2

Intro

The Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB has clock speeds of 625 MHz on the GPU, and 993 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR3 memory. It features 800(160x5) SPUs as well as 40 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 4870 X2, which makes use of a 55 nm design. AMD has clocked the core speed at 750 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM works at a frequency of 900 MHz on this specific model. It features 800(160x5) SPUs along with 40 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB 250 Watts
Radeon HD 4870 X2 350 Watts
Difference: 100 Watts (40%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Radeon HD 4870 X2 should theoretically be quite a bit better than the Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 4870 X2 230400 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB 127104 MB/sec
Difference: 103296 (81%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4870 X2 is a little bit (more or less 20%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 4870 X2 60000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB 50000 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 10000 (20%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the Radeon HD 4870 X2 is the winner, but only just. (explain)

Radeon HD 4870 X2 24000 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB 20000 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 4000 (20%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Display Prices

Hide Prices

Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 4870 X2

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

Display Specifications

Hide Specifications

Model Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB Radeon HD 4870 X2
Manufacturer AMD AMD
Year Nov 7, 2008 Aug 12, 2008
Code Name R700 R700
Memory 512 MB (x2) 1024 MB (x2)
Core Speed 625 MHz (x2) 750 MHz (x2)
Memory Speed 1986 MHz (x2) 3600 MHz (x2)
Power (Max TDP) 250 watts 350 watts
Bandwidth 127104 MB/sec 230400 MB/sec
Texel Rate 50000 Mtexels/sec 60000 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 20000 Mpixels/sec 24000 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 800(160x5) (x2) 800(160x5) (x2)
Texture Mapping Units 40 (x2) 40 (x2)
Render Output Units 16 (x2) 16 (x2)
Bus Type GDDR3 GDDR5
Bus Width 256-bit (x2) 256-bit (x2)
Fab Process 55 nm 55 nm
Transistors 956 million 956 million
Bus PCIe 2.0 x16 (PCIe bridge) PCIe 2.0 x16 (PCIe bridge)
DirectX Version DirectX 10.1 DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses 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 high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock 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 applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip 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 number of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 4870 X2

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.

Comments

Be the first to leave a comment!

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


*

WordPress Anti Spam by WP-SpamShield