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Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB vs Radeon HD 4830 512MB

Intro

The Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB has core clock speeds of 825 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR3 memory. It features 320(64x5) SPUs as well as 16 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Compare that to the Radeon HD 4830 512MB, which comes with a clock frequency of 575 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 900 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 55 nm design. It features 640(128x5) SPUs, 32 Texture Address Units, and 16 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB should be much faster than the Radeon HD 4830 512MB in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB 115200 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4830 512MB 57600 MB/sec
Difference: 57600 (100%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB should be much (about 43%) better at AF than the Radeon HD 4830 512MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB 26400 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4830 512MB 18400 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 8000 (43%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB 26400 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4830 512MB 9200 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 17200 (187%)

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

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Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB

Amazon.com

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Radeon HD 4830 512MB

Amazon.com

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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

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Model Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB Radeon HD 4830 512MB
Manufacturer AMD AMD
Year Jan 28, 2008 Oct 21, 2008
Code Name R680 RV770 LE
Memory 512 MB (x2) 512 MB
Core Speed 825 MHz (x2) 575 MHz
Memory Speed 1800 MHz (x2) 1800 MHz
Power (Max TDP) (Unknown) watts 95 watts
Bandwidth 115200 MB/sec 57600 MB/sec
Texel Rate 26400 Mtexels/sec 18400 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 26400 Mpixels/sec 9200 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 320(64x5) (x2) 640(128x5)
Texture Mapping Units 16 (x2) 32
Render Output Units 16 (x2) 16
Bus Type GDDR3 GDDR3
Bus Width 256-bit (x2) 256-bit
Fab Process 55 nm 55 nm
Transistors (Unknown) million 956 million
Bus PCIe 2.0 x16/(internal PCIe 1.1 x16) PCIe 2.0 x16
DirectX Version DirectX 10.1 DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of 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 applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number 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 also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 4830 512MB

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.

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