Radeon HD 4870 512MB vs Radeon R9 390 8G

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon R9 390 8G, which comes with GPU core speed of 1000 MHz, and 8192 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1500 MHz through a 512-bit bus. It also is made up of 2560 Stream Processors, 160 Texture Address Units, and 64 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4870 512MB		150 Watts
Radeon R9 390 8G		275 Watts
	Difference: 125 Watts (83%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon R9 390 8G is 233% quicker than the Radeon HD 4870 512MB in general, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon R9 390 8G		384000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4870 512MB		115200 MB/sec
	Difference: 268800 (233%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 390 8G should be quite a bit (approximately 433%) more effective at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 4870 512MB. (explain)

Radeon R9 390 8G		160000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4870 512MB		30000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 130000 (433%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 390 8G should be much (more or less 433%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 4870 512MB, and also capable of handling higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

Radeon R9 390 8G		64000 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4870 512MB		12000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 52000 (433%)

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 largest amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once 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 anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total 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 applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to its 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 filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.