Radeon HD 3870 512MB vs Radeon HD 6750

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon HD 6750, which has core speeds of 725 MHz on the GPU, and 1000 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 720 SPUs along with 36 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 6750		86 Watts
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		106 Watts
	Difference: 20 Watts (23%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 6750 should perform a little bit faster than the Radeon HD 3870 512MB in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 6750		64000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (11%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 6750 should be quite a bit (more or less 110%) better at anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 3870 512MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 6750		26100 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		12400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 13700 (110%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 3870 512MB should be a small bit (approximately 7%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 6750, and should be capable of handling higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 512MB		12400 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 6750		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: Bandwidth is the max amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses 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 higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.