Compare any two graphics cards:
VS

Radeon HD 3850 1GB vs Radeon HD 6950

Intro

The Radeon HD 3850 1GB comes with a GPU clock speed of 668 MHz, and the 1024 MB of GDDR3 memory runs at 828 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 320(64x5) SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 6950, which features a core clock frequency of 800 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1250 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 1408 SPUs, 88 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 3850 1GB 75 Watts
Radeon HD 6950 200 Watts
Difference: 125 Watts (167%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon HD 6950 should perform quite a bit faster than the Radeon HD 3850 1GB overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950 160000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3850 1GB 52992 MB/sec
Difference: 107008 (202%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 6950 should be much (approximately 559%) better at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 3850 1GB. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950 70400 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 1GB 10688 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 59712 (559%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 6950 should be much (more or less 140%) faster with regards to FSAA than the Radeon HD 3850 1GB, and capable of handling higher resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950 25600 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 1GB 10688 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 14912 (140%)

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

Display Prices

Hide Prices

Radeon HD 3850 1GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 6950

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 3850 1GB Radeon HD 6950
Manufacturer AMD AMD
Year Nov 19, 2007 December 2010
Code Name RV670 PRO Cayman Pro
Memory 1024 MB 1024 MB
Core Speed 668 MHz 800 MHz
Memory Speed 1656 MHz 5000 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 75 watts 200 watts
Bandwidth 52992 MB/sec 160000 MB/sec
Texel Rate 10688 Mtexels/sec 70400 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 10688 Mpixels/sec 25600 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 320(64x5) 1408
Texture Mapping Units 16 88
Render Output Units 16 32
Bus Type GDDR3 GDDR5
Bus Width 256-bit 256-bit
Fab Process 55 nm 40 nm
Transistors (Unknown) million 2640 million
Bus PCIe 2.0 x16/AGP 8x PCIe x16
DirectX Version DirectX 10.1 DirectX 11
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 4.1

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better 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 processed per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few 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.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

Radeon HD 3850 1GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 6950

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