GeForce GTX 860M vs Radeon HD 3870 512MB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 3870 512MB, which uses a 55 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 775 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM runs at a speed of 900 MHz on this particular model. It features 320(64x5) SPUs as well as 16 Texture Address Units and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 860M		45 Watts
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		106 Watts
	Difference: 61 Watts (136%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 860M should theoretically be a little bit faster than the Radeon HD 3870 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		64000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (11%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 860M should be much (more or less 517%) better at anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 3870 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		76512 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		12400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 64112 (517%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 860M should be a little bit (approximately 3%) better at FSAA than the Radeon HD 3870 512MB, and capable of handling higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		12752 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		12400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 352 (3%)

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: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This figure is calculated 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 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 that the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.