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Radeon HD 3470 256MB vs Radeon HD 6950 2GB

Intro

The Radeon HD 3470 256MB comes with a core clock speed of 800 MHz and a DDR2 memory frequency of 950 MHz. It also features a 128-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is made up of 40(8x5) SPUs, 4 TAUs, and 4 Raster Operation Units.

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 6950 2GB, which has GPU clock speed of 800 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 1250 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 1408 SPUs, 88 Texture Address Units, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Radeon HD 6950 2GB should in theory be a lot better than the Radeon HD 3470 256MB overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950 2GB 160000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3470 256MB 30400 MB/sec
Difference: 129600 (426%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 6950 2GB is a lot (approximately 2100%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 3470 256MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950 2GB 70400 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 256MB 3200 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 67200 (2100%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 6950 2GB is much (about 700%) more effective at FSAA than the Radeon HD 3470 256MB, and also capable of handling higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950 2GB 25600 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 256MB 3200 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 22400 (700%)

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

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Radeon HD 3470 256MB

Amazon.com

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Radeon HD 6950 2GB

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 3470 256MB Radeon HD 6950 2GB
Manufacturer AMD AMD
Year 2008 December 2010
Code Name RV620 PRO Cayman Pro
Memory 256 MB 2048 MB
Core Speed 800 MHz 800 MHz
Memory Speed 1900 MHz 5000 MHz
Power (Max TDP) (Unknown) watts 200 watts
Bandwidth 30400 MB/sec 160000 MB/sec
Texel Rate 3200 Mtexels/sec 70400 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 3200 Mpixels/sec 25600 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 40(8x5) 1408
Texture Mapping Units 4 88
Render Output Units 4 32
Bus Type DDR2 GDDR5
Bus Width 128-bit 256-bit
Fab Process 55 nm 40 nm
Transistors (Unknown) million 2640 million
Bus PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe x16
DirectX Version DirectX 10.1 DirectX 11
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 4.1

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster 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 are processed per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to its 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 the core 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 rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.

Display Prices

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Radeon HD 3470 256MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 6950 2GB

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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