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GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 vs Radeon HD 3850 X2

Intro

The GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 uses a 65 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 576 MHz. The GDDR3 memory is set to run at a speed of 999 MHz on this particular model. It features 216 SPUs along with 72 Texture Address Units and 28 ROPs.

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 3850 X2, which comes with a core clock frequency of 668 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 828 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 55 nm design. It is made up of 320(64x5) SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 should be 6% quicker than the Radeon HD 3850 X2 in general, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 111888 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3850 X2 105984 MB/sec
Difference: 5904 (6%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 is a lot (approximately 94%) more effective at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 3850 X2. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 41472 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 X2 21376 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 20096 (94%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the Radeon HD 3850 X2 is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

Radeon HD 3850 X2 21376 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 16128 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 5248 (33%)

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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GeForce GTX 260 Core 216

Amazon.com

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Radeon HD 3850 X2

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 GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Radeon HD 3850 X2
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year September 16, 2008 Apr 4, 2008
Code Name G200 RV670 PRO
Memory 896 MB 512 MB (x2)
Core Speed 576 MHz 668 MHz (x2)
Memory Speed 1998 MHz 1656 MHz (x2)
Power (Max TDP) 202 watts (Unknown) watts
Bandwidth 111888 MB/sec 105984 MB/sec
Texel Rate 41472 Mtexels/sec 21376 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 16128 Mpixels/sec 21376 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 216 320(64x5) (x2)
Texture Mapping Units 72 16 (x2)
Render Output Units 28 16 (x2)
Bus Type GDDR3 GDDR3
Bus Width 448-bit 256-bit (x2)
Fab Process 65 nm 55 nm
Transistors 1400 million (Unknown) million
Bus PCIe x16 2.0 PCIe 2.0 x16/(internal PCIe 1.1 x16)
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.1 OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the max amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.

Display Prices

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GeForce GTX 260 Core 216

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 3850 X2

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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