GeForce GT 320 vs Radeon HD 3870 1GB

Intro

Compare all of that to the Radeon HD 3870 1GB, which has a core clock frequency of 775 MHz and a GDDR4 memory frequency of 1125 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 55 nm design. It is made up of 320(64x5) SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 320		43 Watts
Radeon HD 3870 1GB		106 Watts
	Difference: 63 Watts (147%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 3870 1GB is 185% faster than the GeForce GT 320 overall, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 1GB		72000 MB/sec
GeForce GT 320		25280 MB/sec
	Difference: 46720 (185%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 320 is a little bit (about 5%) better at AF than the Radeon HD 3870 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GT 320		12960 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 1GB		12400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 560 (5%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 3870 1GB will be much (more or less 187%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce GT 320, and also will be capable of handling higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 1GB		12400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 320		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 8080 (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.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, 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 can be applied per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher 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 a second.

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