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Radeon HD 3870 512MB vs Radeon R7 260X

Intro

The Radeon HD 3870 512MB comes with a GPU clock speed of 775 MHz, and the 512 MB of GDDR3 memory is set to run at 900 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is comprised of 320(64x5) SPUs, 16 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Compare all of that to the Radeon R7 260X, which uses a 28 nm design. AMD has set the core speed at 1100 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM is set to run at a speed of 1625 MHz on this specific model. It features 896 SPUs as well as 56 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 3870 512MB 106 Watts
Radeon R7 260X 115 Watts
Difference: 9 Watts (8%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon R7 260X is 81% faster than the Radeon HD 3870 512MB overall, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

Radeon R7 260X 104000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB 57600 MB/sec
Difference: 46400 (81%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R7 260X will be much (more or less 397%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the Radeon HD 3870 512MB. (explain)

Radeon R7 260X 61600 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB 12400 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 49200 (397%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the Radeon R7 260X is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

Radeon R7 260X 17600 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB 12400 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 5200 (42%)

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

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Radeon HD 3870 512MB

Amazon.com

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Radeon R7 260X

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 512MB Radeon R7 260X
Manufacturer AMD AMD
Year Nov 19, 2007 October 2013
Code Name RV670 XT Bonaire XTX
Memory 512 MB 2048 MB
Core Speed 775 MHz 1100 MHz
Memory Speed 1800 MHz 6500 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 106 watts 115 watts
Bandwidth 57600 MB/sec 104000 MB/sec
Texel Rate 12400 Mtexels/sec 61600 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 12400 Mpixels/sec 17600 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 320(64x5) 896
Texture Mapping Units 16 56
Render Output Units 16 16
Bus Type GDDR3 GDDR5
Bus Width 256-bit 128-bit
Fab Process 55 nm 28 nm
Transistors (Unknown) million 2080 million
Bus PCIe 2.0 x16/AGP 8x 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 maximum amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses 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 AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate 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 filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

Radeon HD 3870 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon R7 260X

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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