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GeForce GTX 960M vs Radeon HD 3850 256MB

Intro

The GeForce GTX 960M comes with a GPU core clock speed of 1096 MHz, and the 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM is set to run at 1000 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also features 640 Stream Processors, 40 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 3850 256MB, which has a core clock frequency of 668 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 828 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit bus, and uses a 55 nm design. It is comprised of 320(64x5) SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 960M 65 Watts
Radeon HD 3850 256MB 75 Watts
Difference: 10 Watts (15%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 960M should in theory be quite a bit better than the Radeon HD 3850 256MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M 64000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3850 256MB 52992 MB/sec
Difference: 11008 (21%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960M will be much (about 310%) faster with regards to AF than the Radeon HD 3850 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M 43840 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 256MB 10688 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 33152 (310%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 960M is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960M 17536 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 256MB 10688 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 6848 (64%)

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

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GeForce GTX 960M

Amazon.com

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Radeon HD 3850 256MB

Amazon.com

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Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

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Model GeForce GTX 960M Radeon HD 3850 256MB
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year March 12 2015 Nov 19, 2007
Code Name GM107 RV670 PRO
Memory 2048 MB 256 MB
Core Speed 1096 MHz 668 MHz
Memory Speed 4000 MHz 1656 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 65 watts 75 watts
Bandwidth 64000 MB/sec 52992 MB/sec
Texel Rate 43840 Mtexels/sec 10688 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 17536 Mpixels/sec 10688 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 640 320(64x5)
Texture Mapping Units 40 16
Render Output Units 16 16
Bus Type GDDR5 GDDR3
Bus Width 128-bit 256-bit
Fab Process 28 nm 55 nm
Transistors (Unknown) million (Unknown) million
Bus PCIe 3.0 x16 PCIe 2.0 x16/AGP 8x
DirectX Version DirectX 12 DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 4.5 OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, 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 AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.

Display Prices

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GeForce GTX 960M

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 3850 256MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

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