Radeon HD 4870 X2 vs Radeon HD 5850

Intro

Compare all of that to the Radeon HD 5850, which comes with a GPU core clock speed of 725 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1000 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is comprised of 1440(288x5) SPUs, 72 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Avatar

Settings:	Ultra High Quality
AA:	8x
AF:	none
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

Radeon HD 4870 X2		64 FPS
Radeon HD 5850		52 FPS
	Difference: 12 FPS (23%)

Battlefield Bad Company 2

Settings:	High Quality
AA:	4x
AF:	8x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

Radeon HD 4870 X2		60 FPS
Radeon HD 5850		44 FPS
	Difference: 16 FPS (36%)

Left4Dead 2

Settings:	Very High
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

Radeon HD 4870 X2		134 FPS
Radeon HD 5850		104 FPS
	Difference: 30 FPS (29%)

Supreme Commander 2

Settings:	High
AA:	8x
AF:	16x
Resolution:	1920x1200
Test Machine:	Tom's Hardware Test Machine (Source)

Radeon HD 4870 X2		99 FPS
Radeon HD 5850		78 FPS
	Difference: 21 FPS (27%)

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Radeon HD 4870 X2 wins

(Based entirely on the benchmarks listed above)

When combining all game benchmark scores on this page together, the Radeon HD 4870 X2 wins overall, by 79 FPS. Please note that we do not have the results of every benchmark ever done for these cards, so the results may differ wildly in different games.

Radeon HD 4870 X2		357 FPS
Radeon HD 5850		278 FPS
	Difference: 79 FPS (28%)

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 5850		151 Watts
Radeon HD 4870 X2		350 Watts
	Difference: 199 Watts (132%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon HD 4870 X2 should be 80% faster than the Radeon HD 5850 overall, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

Radeon HD 4870 X2		230400 MB/sec
Radeon HD 5850		128000 MB/sec
	Difference: 102400 (80%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4870 X2 is a little bit (about 15%) better at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 5850. (explain)

Radeon HD 4870 X2		60000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 5850		52200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 7800 (15%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 4870 X2 is a small bit (about 3%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 5850, and will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

Radeon HD 4870 X2		24000 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 5850		23200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 800 (3%)

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

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the largest amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, 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 texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, 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 could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.