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Radeon HD 3470 512MB vs Radeon HD 6950 2GB

Intro

The Radeon HD 3470 512MB comes with a core clock speed of 800 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 950 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It features 40(8x5) SPUs, 4 Texture Address Units, and 4 ROPs.

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 6950 2GB, which uses a 40 nm design. AMD has set the core speed at 800 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM runs at a speed of 1250 MHz on this particular model. It features 1408 SPUs as well as 88 Texture Address Units and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 6950 2GB will be 426% quicker than the Radeon HD 3470 512MB overall, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950 2GB 160000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3470 512MB 30400 MB/sec
Difference: 129600 (426%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 6950 2GB will be much (approximately 2100%) more effective at AF than the Radeon HD 3470 512MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950 2GB 70400 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 512MB 3200 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 67200 (2100%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the Radeon HD 6950 2GB is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950 2GB 25600 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 512MB 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 512MB

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 512MB Radeon HD 6950 2GB
Manufacturer AMD AMD
Year 2008 December 2010
Code Name RV620 PRO Cayman Pro
Memory 512 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 GDDR3 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: Bandwidth is the largest amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video 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 maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.

Display Prices

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Radeon HD 3470 512MB

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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