GeForce GTS 150 vs Radeon HD 3650 256MB

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 3650 256MB, which features a core clock speed of 725 MHz and a DDR2 memory frequency of 800 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It features 120(24x5) SPUs, 8 Texture Address Units, and 4 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 3650 256MB		78 Watts
GeForce GTS 150		141 Watts
	Difference: 63 Watts (81%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTS 150, in theory, should perform a lot faster than the Radeon HD 3650 256MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTS 150		32000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3650 256MB		25600 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (25%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 150 will be a lot (approximately 717%) better at anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 3650 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GTS 150		47360 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3650 256MB		5800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 41560 (717%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTS 150 is superior to the Radeon HD 3650 256MB, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTS 150		11840 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3650 256MB		2900 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 8940 (308%)

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: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 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, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, 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 video card could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output 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 reach the maximum fill rate.