GeForce GT 320 vs Radeon HD 3470 256MB

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 3470 256MB, which comes with GPU core speed of 800 MHz, and 256 MB of DDR2 memory running at 950 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 40(8x5) SPUs, 4 TAUs, and 4 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon HD 3470 256MB should theoretically perform a little bit faster than the GeForce GT 320 overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 3470 256MB		30400 MB/sec
GeForce GT 320		25280 MB/sec
	Difference: 5120 (20%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 320 should be a lot (about 305%) better at AF than the Radeon HD 3470 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GT 320		12960 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 256MB		3200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 9760 (305%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 320 will be quite a bit (about 35%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 3470 256MB, and capable of handling higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GT 320		4320 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 256MB		3200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1120 (35%)

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 max amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core clock speed. 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 is also dependant on many 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.