Radeon HD 3850 512MB vs Radeon R9 M270X

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon R9 M270X, which comes with GPU core speed of 725 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1125 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is comprised of 640 Stream Processors, 40 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon R9 M270X should perform a lot faster than the Radeon HD 3850 512MB in general. (explain)

Radeon R9 M270X		72000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3850 512MB		52992 MB/sec
	Difference: 19008 (36%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 M270X should be quite a bit (about 171%) better at anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 3850 512MB. (explain)

Radeon R9 M270X		29000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 512MB		10688 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 18312 (171%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the Radeon R9 M270X is the winner, though not by far. (explain)

Radeon R9 M270X		11600 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 512MB		10688 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 912 (9%)

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 (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

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