GeForce GT 320 vs Radeon HD 3850 512MB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 3850 512MB, which has a clock frequency of 668 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 828 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and uses a 55 nm design. It is made up of 320(64x5) SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 320		43 Watts
Radeon HD 3850 512MB		75 Watts
	Difference: 32 Watts (74%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the Radeon HD 3850 512MB should theoretically be much superior to the GeForce GT 320 overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 3850 512MB		52992 MB/sec
GeForce GT 320		25280 MB/sec
	Difference: 27712 (110%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 320 should be a lot (approximately 21%) better at AF than the Radeon HD 3850 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GT 320		12960 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 512MB		10688 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2272 (21%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 3850 512MB will be a lot (more or less 147%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 320, and also should be able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

Radeon HD 3850 512MB		10688 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 320		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 6368 (147%)

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 information (measured in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics 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 maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka 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 memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.