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GeForce 9800 GT 512MB vs Radeon HD 3850 1GB

Intro

The GeForce 9800 GT 512MB comes with core clock speeds of 600 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM. It features 112 SPUs as well as 56 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 3850 1GB, which comes with a clock frequency of 668 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 828 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 55 nm design. It features 320(64x5) SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 3850 1GB 75 Watts
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 105 Watts
Difference: 30 Watts (40%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB should be 9% faster than the Radeon HD 3850 1GB overall, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 57600 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3850 1GB 52992 MB/sec
Difference: 4608 (9%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GT 512MB should be a lot (about 214%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 3850 1GB. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 33600 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 1GB 10688 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 22912 (214%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 3850 1GB will be a bit (approximately 11%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 9800 GT 512MB, and should be able to handle higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

Radeon HD 3850 1GB 10688 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 9600 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 1088 (11%)

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 9800 GT 512MB

Amazon.com

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Radeon HD 3850 1GB

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.

Specifications

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Model GeForce 9800 GT 512MB Radeon HD 3850 1GB
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year July 2008 Nov 19, 2007
Code Name G92a/b RV670 PRO
Memory 512 MB 1024 MB
Core Speed 600 MHz 668 MHz
Memory Speed 1800 MHz 1656 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 105 watts 75 watts
Bandwidth 57600 MB/sec 52992 MB/sec
Texel Rate 33600 Mtexels/sec 10688 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 9600 Mpixels/sec 10688 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 112 320(64x5)
Texture Mapping Units 56 16
Render Output Units 16 16
Bus Type GDDR3 GDDR3
Bus Width 256-bit 256-bit
Fab Process 65/55 nm 55 nm
Transistors 754 million (Unknown) million
Bus PCIe x16 2.0 PCIe 2.0 x16/AGP 8x
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster 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 are processed in one second. This 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 texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce 9800 GT 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 3850 1GB

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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