GeForce GT 320 vs Radeon HD 3870 1GB

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon HD 3870 1GB, which makes use of a 55 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 775 MHz. The GDDR4 memory runs at a frequency of 1125 MHz on this specific model. It features 320(64x5) SPUs along with 16 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 320		43 Watts
Radeon HD 3870 1GB		106 Watts
	Difference: 63 Watts (147%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon HD 3870 1GB should be 185% quicker than the GeForce GT 320 in general, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 1GB		72000 MB/sec
GeForce GT 320		25280 MB/sec
	Difference: 46720 (185%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 320 will be a bit (more or less 5%) better at AF than the Radeon HD 3870 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GT 320		12960 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 1GB		12400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 560 (5%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the Radeon HD 3870 1GB is a better choice, by far. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 1GB		12400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 320		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 8080 (187%)

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 max amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core 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 applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.