Radeon HD 3870 512MB vs Radeon R9 390 8G

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon R9 390 8G, which features GPU core speed of 1000 MHz, and 8192 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1500 MHz through a 512-bit bus. It also is made up of 2560 Stream Processors, 160 TAUs, and 64 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 3870 512MB		106 Watts
Radeon R9 390 8G		275 Watts
	Difference: 169 Watts (159%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon R9 390 8G, in theory, should perform much faster than the Radeon HD 3870 512MB overall. (explain)

Radeon R9 390 8G		384000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 326400 (567%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 390 8G will be quite a bit (about 1190%) more effective at AF than the Radeon HD 3870 512MB. (explain)

Radeon R9 390 8G		160000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		12400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 147600 (1190%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 390 8G should be quite a bit (approximately 416%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 3870 512MB, and will be able to handle higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon R9 390 8G		64000 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		12400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 51600 (416%)

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 (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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