GeForce GTX 275 vs Radeon HD 3850 X2

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 3850 X2, which features a core clock speed of 668 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 828 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is comprised of 320(64x5) SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 275 should theoretically be just a bit superior to the Radeon HD 3850 X2 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 275		127008 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3850 X2		105984 MB/sec
	Difference: 21024 (20%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 275 should be much (more or less 137%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 3850 X2. (explain)

GeForce GTX 275		50640 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3850 X2		21376 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 29264 (137%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 3850 X2 is a lot (more or less 21%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 275, and also will be capable of handling higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

Radeon HD 3850 X2		21376 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 275		17724 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3652 (21%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes 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 - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.