GeForce GTX 580 3GB vs Radeon HD 3650 256MB

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon HD 3650 256MB, which features a GPU core clock speed of 725 MHz, and 256 MB of DDR2 memory running at 800 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 120(24x5) SPUs, 8 TAUs, and 4 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 3650 256MB		78 Watts
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		244 Watts
	Difference: 166 Watts (213%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 580 3GB should perform quite a bit faster than the Radeon HD 3650 256MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3650 256MB		25600 MB/sec
	Difference: 166784 (652%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB will be a lot (about 752%) faster with regards to AF than the Radeon HD 3650 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3650 256MB		5800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 43608 (752%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 580 3GB is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		37056 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3650 256MB		2900 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 34156 (1178%)

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 maximum amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster 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 in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics 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 the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount 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 output rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.