Radeon HD 3870 512MB vs Radeon R7 250X

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon R7 250X, which uses a 28 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 1000 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a speed of 1125 MHz on this particular card. It features 640 SPUs as well as 40 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon R7 250X		95 Watts
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		106 Watts
	Difference: 11 Watts (12%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon R7 250X will be 25% faster than the Radeon HD 3870 512MB overall, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon R7 250X		72000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 14400 (25%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R7 250X is quite a bit (approximately 223%) better at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 3870 512MB. (explain)

Radeon R7 250X		40000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		12400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 27600 (223%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R7 250X should be much (approximately 29%) faster with regards to AA than the Radeon HD 3870 512MB, and also able to handle higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon R7 250X		16000 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		12400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3600 (29%)

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 (counted in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at handling 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 could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.