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Radeon HD 3850 256MB vs Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB

Intro

The Radeon HD 3850 256MB uses a 55 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 668 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM works at a frequency of 828 MHz on this specific model. It features 320(64x5) SPUs along with 16 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Compare all of that to the Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB, which comes with core speeds of 625 MHz on the GPU, and 993 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR3 memory. It features 800(160x5) SPUs as well as 40 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 3850 256MB 75 Watts
Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB 250 Watts
Difference: 175 Watts (233%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB should perform a lot faster than the Radeon HD 3850 256MB overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB 127104 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3850 256MB 52992 MB/sec
Difference: 74112 (140%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB should be quite a bit (more or less 368%) more effective at AF than the Radeon HD 3850 256MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB 50000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 256MB 10688 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 39312 (368%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB is a better choice, by far. (explain)

Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB 20000 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 256MB 10688 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 9312 (87%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

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Radeon HD 3850 256MB

Amazon.com

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Radeon HD 4850 X2 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 3850 256MB Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB
Manufacturer AMD AMD
Year Nov 19, 2007 Nov 7, 2008
Code Name RV670 PRO R700
Memory 256 MB 512 MB (x2)
Core Speed 668 MHz 625 MHz (x2)
Memory Speed 1656 MHz 1986 MHz (x2)
Power (Max TDP) 75 watts 250 watts
Bandwidth 52992 MB/sec 127104 MB/sec
Texel Rate 10688 Mtexels/sec 50000 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 10688 Mpixels/sec 20000 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 320(64x5) 800(160x5) (x2)
Texture Mapping Units 16 40 (x2)
Render Output Units 16 16 (x2)
Bus Type GDDR3 GDDR3
Bus Width 256-bit 256-bit (x2)
Fab Process 55 nm 55 nm
Transistors (Unknown) million 956 million
Bus PCIe 2.0 x16/AGP 8x PCIe 2.0 x16 (PCIe bridge)
DirectX Version DirectX 10.1 DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the largest amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, 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 are applied in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock 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 output rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.

Display Prices

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Radeon HD 3850 256MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 4850 X2 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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