Compare any two graphics cards:
VS

Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB vs Radeon HD 6870

Intro

The Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB has a GPU core clock speed of 825 MHz, and the 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM is set to run at 900 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 320(64x5) Stream Processors, 16 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 6870, which makes use of a 40 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 900 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a frequency of 1050 MHz on this specific card. It features 1120 SPUs along with 56 Texture Address Units and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon HD 6870, in theory, should be a little bit faster than the Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 6870 134400 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB 115200 MB/sec
Difference: 19200 (17%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 6870 will be quite a bit (about 91%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 6870 50400 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB 26400 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 24000 (91%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the Radeon HD 6870 is superior to the Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB, though only just barely. (explain)

Radeon HD 6870 28800 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB 26400 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 2400 (9%)

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

Display Prices

Hide Prices

Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 6870

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.

Specifications

Display Specifications

Hide Specifications

Model Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB Radeon HD 6870
Manufacturer AMD AMD
Year Jan 28, 2008 October 2010
Code Name R680 Barts XT
Memory 512 MB (x2) 1024 MB
Core Speed 825 MHz (x2) 900 MHz
Memory Speed 1800 MHz (x2) 4200 MHz
Power (Max TDP) (Unknown) watts 151 watts
Bandwidth 115200 MB/sec 134400 MB/sec
Texel Rate 26400 Mtexels/sec 50400 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 26400 Mpixels/sec 28800 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 320(64x5) (x2) 1120
Texture Mapping Units 16 (x2) 56
Render Output Units 16 (x2) 32
Bus Type GDDR3 GDDR5
Bus Width 256-bit (x2) 256-bit
Fab Process 55 nm 40 nm
Transistors (Unknown) million 1700 million
Bus PCIe 2.0 x16/(internal PCIe 1.1 x16) PCIe x16
DirectX Version DirectX 10.1 DirectX 11
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 4.1

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

Radeon HD 3870 X2 512MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 6870

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.

Comments

Be the first to leave a comment!

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


*

WordPress Anti Spam by WP-SpamShield