Radeon HD 3870 1GB vs Radeon HD 6750 1GB

Intro

Compare all of that to the Radeon HD 6750 1GB, which uses a 40 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 725 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM works at a frequency of 1000 MHz on this specific model. It features 720 SPUs as well as 36 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 6750 1GB		86 Watts
Radeon HD 3870 1GB		106 Watts
	Difference: 20 Watts (23%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon HD 3870 1GB should in theory perform a small bit faster than the Radeon HD 6750 1GB in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 1GB		72000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 6750 1GB		64000 MB/sec
	Difference: 8000 (13%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 6750 1GB is much (more or less 110%) better at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 3870 1GB. (explain)

Radeon HD 6750 1GB		26100 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 1GB		12400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 13700 (110%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the Radeon HD 3870 1GB is a better choice, not by a very large margin though. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 1GB		12400 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 6750 1GB		11600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 800 (7%)

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 maximum amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. The number is 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 it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines 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 output rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.