Radeon HD 3470 256MB vs Radeon HD 4670 1GB

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 4670 1GB, which makes use of a 55 nm design. AMD has set the core speed at 750 MHz. The GDDR4/GDDR3/DDR3/DDR2 memory is set to run at a speed of 1100 MHz on this particular card. It features 320(64x5) SPUs along with 32 TAUs and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 4670 1GB is 16% quicker than the Radeon HD 3470 256MB overall, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon HD 4670 1GB		35200 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3470 256MB		30400 MB/sec
	Difference: 4800 (16%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4670 1GB is a lot (more or less 650%) better at anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 3470 256MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 4670 1GB		24000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 256MB		3200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 20800 (650%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the Radeon HD 4670 1GB is a better choice, by far. (explain)

Radeon HD 4670 1GB		6000 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 256MB		3200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2800 (88%)

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 data (counted in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses 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 higher screen resolutions.

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

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