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Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB vs Radeon HD 7870

Intro

The Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB has a GPU core speed of 825 MHz, and the 1024 MB of GDDR4 memory runs at 1126 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 320(64x5) SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 7870, which comes with a core clock speed of 1000 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1200 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It is made up of 1280 SPUs, 80 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the Radeon HD 7870 should perform a small bit faster than the Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 7870 153600 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB 144128 MB/sec
Difference: 9472 (7%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 7870 will be a lot (more or less 203%) more effective at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB. (explain)

Radeon HD 7870 80000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB 26400 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 53600 (203%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 7870 is quite a bit (more or less 21%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB, and also should be capable of handling higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

Radeon HD 7870 32000 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB 26400 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 5600 (21%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

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Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB

Amazon.com

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Radeon HD 7870

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 3870 X2 1GB Radeon HD 7870
Manufacturer AMD AMD
Year Jan 28, 2008 March 2012
Code Name R680 Pitcairn XT
Memory 1024 MB (x2) 2048 MB
Core Speed 825 MHz (x2) 1000 MHz
Memory Speed 2252 MHz (x2) 4800 MHz
Power (Max TDP) (Unknown) watts 175 watts
Bandwidth 144128 MB/sec 153600 MB/sec
Texel Rate 26400 Mtexels/sec 80000 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 26400 Mpixels/sec 32000 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 320(64x5) (x2) 1280
Texture Mapping Units 16 (x2) 80
Render Output Units 16 (x2) 32
Bus Type GDDR4 GDDR5
Bus Width 256-bit (x2) 256-bit
Fab Process 55 nm 28 nm
Transistors (Unknown) million 2800 million
Bus PCIe 2.0 x16/(internal PCIe 1.1 x16) PCIe 3.0 x16
DirectX Version DirectX 10.1 DirectX 11.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 4.2

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the max amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock 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 in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill 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 potential to get to the max fill rate.

Display Prices

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Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 7870

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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