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GeForce 8800 GT 256MB vs Radeon HD 3850 1GB

Intro

The GeForce 8800 GT 256MB has a GPU core speed of 600 MHz, and the 256 MB of GDDR3 memory runs at 700 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is comprised of 112 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Compare that to the Radeon HD 3850 1GB, which has GPU clock speed of 668 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR3 memory set to run at 828 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is comprised of 320(64x5) Stream Processors, 16 Texture Address Units, and 16 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 3850 1GB 75 Watts
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB 105 Watts
Difference: 30 Watts (40%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 3850 1GB is 18% quicker than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB overall, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon HD 3850 1GB 52992 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB 44800 MB/sec
Difference: 8192 (18%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GT 256MB will be quite a bit (about 214%) more effective at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 3850 1GB. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 256MB 33600 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 1GB 10688 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 22912 (214%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the Radeon HD 3850 1GB is superior to the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB, though not by far. (explain)

Radeon HD 3850 1GB 10688 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB 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 8800 GT 256MB

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 8800 GT 256MB Radeon HD 3850 1GB
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year Dec 2007 Nov 19, 2007
Code Name G92 RV670 PRO
Memory 256 MB 1024 MB
Core Speed 600 MHz 668 MHz
Memory Speed 1400 MHz 1656 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 105 watts 75 watts
Bandwidth 44800 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 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: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster 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 texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock 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 processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.

Display Prices

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GeForce 8800 GT 256MB

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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