GeForce GTX 750 vs Radeon HD 3870 512MB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 3870 512MB, which makes use of a 55 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 775 MHz. The GDDR3 memory works at a speed of 900 MHz on this model. It features 320(64x5) SPUs along with 16 Texture Address Units and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 750		55 Watts
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		106 Watts
	Difference: 51 Watts (93%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 750 should theoretically be quite a bit better than the Radeon HD 3870 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 750		80000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 22400 (39%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 750 will be a lot (more or less 163%) better at anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 3870 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 750		32640 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		12400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 20240 (163%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 750 is much (approximately 32%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 3870 512MB, and also capable of handling higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 750		16320 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		12400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3920 (32%)

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 max amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.