GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB vs Radeon HD 6870

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 6870, which features a clock frequency of 900 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1050 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It features 1120 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 6870		151 Watts
GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB		350 Watts
	Difference: 199 Watts (132%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB is 595% quicker than the Radeon HD 6870 in general, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB		934298 MB/sec
Radeon HD 6870		134400 MB/sec
	Difference: 799898 (595%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB is much (more or less 600%) better at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 6870. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB		352800 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 6870		50400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 302400 (600%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB is superior to the Radeon HD 6870, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB		141120 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 6870		28800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 112320 (390%)

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 (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock 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 per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.