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Radeon HD 3870 512MB vs Radeon HD 4550 512MB

Intro

The Radeon HD 3870 512MB comes with a clock frequency of 775 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 900 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is comprised of 320(64x5) SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Compare that to the Radeon HD 4550 512MB, which makes use of a 55 nm design. AMD has set the core speed at 600 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM works at a speed of 800 MHz on this particular model. It features 80(16x5) SPUs along with 8 Texture Address Units and 4 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4550 512MB 25 Watts
Radeon HD 3870 512MB 106 Watts
Difference: 81 Watts (324%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon HD 3870 512MB should be much faster than the Radeon HD 4550 512MB overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 512MB 57600 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4550 512MB 12800 MB/sec
Difference: 44800 (350%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 3870 512MB is a lot (more or less 158%) faster with regards to AF than the Radeon HD 4550 512MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 512MB 12400 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 512MB 4800 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 7600 (158%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 3870 512MB will be quite a bit (about 417%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 4550 512MB, and will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 512MB 12400 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 512MB 2400 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 10000 (417%)

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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Radeon HD 3870 512MB

Amazon.com

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Radeon HD 4550 512MB

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 Radeon HD 3870 512MB Radeon HD 4550 512MB
Manufacturer AMD AMD
Year Nov 19, 2007 Sep 30, 2008
Code Name RV670 XT RV710
Memory 512 MB 512 MB
Core Speed 775 MHz 600 MHz
Memory Speed 1800 MHz 1600 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 106 watts 25 watts
Bandwidth 57600 MB/sec 12800 MB/sec
Texel Rate 12400 Mtexels/sec 4800 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 12400 Mpixels/sec 2400 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 320(64x5) 80(16x5)
Texture Mapping Units 16 8
Render Output Units 16 4
Bus Type GDDR3 GDDR3
Bus Width 256-bit 64-bit
Fab Process 55 nm 55 nm
Transistors (Unknown) million 242 million
Bus PCIe 2.0 x16/AGP 8x PCIe 2.0 x16
DirectX Version DirectX 10.1 DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the 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 per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. 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 lots of 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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Radeon HD 3870 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 4550 512MB

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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