GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB vs Radeon HD 7870 XT

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 7870 XT, which has a core clock speed of 925 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1500 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It features 1536 SPUs, 96 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 7870 XT		185 Watts
GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB		350 Watts
	Difference: 165 Watts (89%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB, in theory, should be a lot faster than the Radeon HD 7870 XT in general. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB		934298 MB/sec
Radeon HD 7870 XT		192000 MB/sec
	Difference: 742298 (387%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB will be a lot (about 297%) more effective at AF than the Radeon HD 7870 XT. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB		352800 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 7870 XT		88800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 264000 (297%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB should be quite a bit (more or less 377%) better at FSAA than the Radeon HD 7870 XT, and should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB		141120 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 7870 XT		29600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 111520 (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 data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics 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 most pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.