GeForce GTX 480 vs Radeon HD 3850 256MB

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 3850 256MB, which makes use of a 55 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 668 MHz. The GDDR3 memory runs at a frequency of 828 MHz on this specific model. It features 320(64x5) SPUs along with 16 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 3850 256MB		75 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 175 Watts (233%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 480 should be 235% faster than the Radeon HD 3850 256MB overall, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3850 256MB		52992 MB/sec
	Difference: 124416 (235%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 should be much (approximately 293%) better at anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 3850 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 256MB		10688 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 31312 (293%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 will be quite a bit (about 214%) faster with regards to FSAA than the Radeon HD 3850 256MB, and also capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 256MB		10688 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 22912 (214%)

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 information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the card will be at handling 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 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 amount of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.