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Radeon HD 3850 X2 vs Radeon HD 4850 2GB

Intro

The Radeon HD 3850 X2 makes use of a 55 nm design. AMD has set the core speed at 668 MHz. The GDDR3 memory runs at a frequency of 828 MHz on this specific model. It features 320(64x5) SPUs as well as 16 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Compare all of that to the Radeon HD 4850 2GB, which uses a 55 nm design. AMD has clocked the core speed at 625 MHz. The GDDR4 RAM works at a frequency of 993 MHz on this particular model. It features 800(160x5) SPUs along with 40 Texture Address Units and 16 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon HD 3850 X2 should theoretically be a lot faster than the Radeon HD 4850 2GB overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 3850 X2 105984 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4850 2GB 63552 MB/sec
Difference: 42432 (67%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4850 2GB is a little bit (approximately 17%) faster with regards to AF than the Radeon HD 3850 X2. (explain)

Radeon HD 4850 2GB 25000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 X2 21376 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 3624 (17%)

Pixel Rate

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

Radeon HD 3850 X2 21376 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4850 2GB 10000 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 11376 (114%)

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 X2

Amazon.com

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Radeon HD 4850 2GB

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 X2 Radeon HD 4850 2GB
Manufacturer AMD AMD
Year Apr 4, 2008 Jun 25, 2008
Code Name RV670 PRO RV770 PRO
Memory 512 MB (x2) 2048 MB
Core Speed 668 MHz (x2) 625 MHz
Memory Speed 1656 MHz (x2) 1986 MHz
Power (Max TDP) (Unknown) watts 110 watts
Bandwidth 105984 MB/sec 63552 MB/sec
Texel Rate 21376 Mtexels/sec 25000 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 21376 Mpixels/sec 10000 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 320(64x5) (x2) 800(160x5)
Texture Mapping Units 16 (x2) 40
Render Output Units 16 (x2) 16
Bus Type GDDR3 GDDR4
Bus Width 256-bit (x2) 256-bit
Fab Process 55 nm 55 nm
Transistors (Unknown) million 956 million
Bus PCIe 2.0 x16/(internal PCIe 1.1 x16) PCIe 2.0 x16
DirectX Version DirectX 10.1 DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the max amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core clock speed. 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 is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.

Display Prices

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Radeon HD 3850 X2

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 4850 2GB

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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