GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB vs Radeon HD 7870 XT

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 7870 XT, which has a clock speed of 925 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1500 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is made up of 1536 SPUs, 96 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 7870 XT		185 Watts
GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB		350 Watts
	Difference: 165 Watts (89%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB is 387% faster than the Radeon HD 7870 XT overall, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB		934298 MB/sec
Radeon HD 7870 XT		192000 MB/sec
	Difference: 742298 (387%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB will be much (about 297%) more effective at AF than the Radeon HD 7870 XT. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB		352800 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 7870 XT		88800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 264000 (297%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB		141120 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 7870 XT		29600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 111520 (377%)

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 (measured in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better 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 can be processed per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.