Radeon HD 5870 vs Radeon R9 M295X

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon R9 M295X, which features GPU core speed of 750 MHz, and 4096 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1375 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 2048 SPUs, 128 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon R9 M295X		125 Watts
Radeon HD 5870		188 Watts
	Difference: 63 Watts (50%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon R9 M295X will be 15% quicker than the Radeon HD 5870 in general, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

Radeon R9 M295X		176000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 5870		153600 MB/sec
	Difference: 22400 (15%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 M295X will be a lot (approximately 41%) faster with regards to AF than the Radeon HD 5870. (explain)

Radeon R9 M295X		96000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 5870		68000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 28000 (41%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 5870 will be a little bit (about 13%) faster with regards to FSAA than the Radeon R9 M295X, and also should be able to handle higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

Radeon HD 5870		27200 Mpixels/sec
Radeon R9 M295X		24000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3200 (13%)

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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

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