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Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB vs Radeon R7 250

Intro

The Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB features a GPU clock speed of 825 MHz, and the 1024 MB of GDDR4 memory is set to run at 1126 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is comprised of 320(64x5) Stream Processors, 16 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Compare those specs to the Radeon R7 250, which makes use of a 28 nm design. AMD has clocked the core speed at 1000 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a speed of 1150 MHz on this specific card. It features 384 SPUs as well as 24 Texture Address Units and 8 Rasterization Operator Units.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB should theoretically be quite a bit better than the Radeon R7 250 overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB 144128 MB/sec
Radeon R7 250 73600 MB/sec
Difference: 70528 (96%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB is a bit (approximately 10%) more effective at texture filtering than the Radeon R7 250. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB 26400 Mtexels/sec
Radeon R7 250 24000 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 2400 (10%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB is much (more or less 230%) faster with regards to AA than the Radeon R7 250, and also able to handle higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB 26400 Mpixels/sec
Radeon R7 250 8000 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 18400 (230%)

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 R7 250

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.

Specifications

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Model Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB Radeon R7 250
Manufacturer AMD AMD
Year Jan 28, 2008 October 2013
Code Name R680 Oland XT
Memory 1024 MB (x2) 1024 MB
Core Speed 825 MHz (x2) 1000 MHz
Memory Speed 2252 MHz (x2) 4600 MHz
Power (Max TDP) (Unknown) watts 65 watts
Bandwidth 144128 MB/sec 73600 MB/sec
Texel Rate 26400 Mtexels/sec 24000 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 26400 Mpixels/sec 8000 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 320(64x5) (x2) 384
Texture Mapping Units 16 (x2) 24
Render Output Units 16 (x2) 8
Bus Type GDDR4 GDDR5
Bus Width 256-bit (x2) 128-bit
Fab Process 55 nm 28 nm
Transistors (Unknown) million 1040 million
Bus PCIe 2.0 x16/(internal PCIe 1.1 x16) PCIe 3.0 x16
DirectX Version DirectX 10.1 DirectX 11.2
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 4.3

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the max amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster 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 number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics card will be at 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 can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel 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 max fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon R7 250

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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