GeForce GT 1030 vs Radeon HD 3850 256MB

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 3850 256MB, which makes use of a 55 nm design. AMD has clocked the core frequency at 668 MHz. The GDDR3 memory is set to run at a frequency of 828 MHz on this specific card. It features 320(64x5) SPUs as well as 16 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 1030		30 Watts
Radeon HD 3850 256MB		75 Watts
	Difference: 45 Watts (150%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the Radeon HD 3850 256MB should theoretically be a bit superior to the GeForce GT 1030 overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 3850 256MB		52992 MB/sec
GeForce GT 1030		49152 MB/sec
	Difference: 3840 (8%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 1030 will be quite a bit (approximately 279%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the Radeon HD 3850 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GT 1030		40480 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 256MB		10688 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 29792 (279%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GT 1030 is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce GT 1030		20240 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 256MB		10688 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9552 (89%)

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 max amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock 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 in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel 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 reach the maximum fill rate.