AMD Radeon HD 7970 vs ATI Radeon HD 3850 X2

Comparative analysis of AMD Radeon HD 7970 and ATI Radeon HD 3850 X2 videocards for all known characteristics in the following categories: Essentials, Technical info, Video outputs and ports, Compatibility, dimensions and requirements, API support, Memory, Technologies. Benchmark videocards performance analysis: Geekbench - OpenCL, CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Face Detection (mPixels/s), CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Ocean Surface Simulation (Frames/s), CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - T-Rex (Frames/s), CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Video Composition (Frames/s), CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Bitcoin Mining (mHash/s), GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Frames), GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Frames), GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Frames), GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Fps), GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Fps), GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Fps), 3DMark Fire Strike - Graphics Score, PassMark - G3D Mark, PassMark - G2D Mark.

AMD Radeon HD 7970

ATI Radeon HD 3850 X2

Differences

Reasons to consider the AMD Radeon HD 7970

Videocard is newer: launch date 3 year(s) 8 month(s) later
3.2x more pipelines: 2048 vs 2x 320
4.4x better floating-point performance: 3,789 gflops vs 2x 428.2 gflops
A newer manufacturing process allows for a more powerful, yet cooler running videocard: 28 nm vs 55 nm
3x more maximum memory size: 3 GB vs 2x 512 MB

Launch date	22 December 2011 vs 4 April 2008
Pipelines	2048 vs 2x 320
Floating-point performance	3,789 gflops vs 2x 428.2 gflops
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm vs 55 nm
Maximum memory size	3 GB vs 2x 512 MB

Reasons to consider the ATI Radeon HD 3850 X2

Around 78% higher texture fill rate: 2x 10.7 GTexel / s billion / sec vs 118.4 GTexel / s
2.1x lower typical power consumption: 140 Watt vs 300 Watt
Around 20% higher memory clock speed: 1656 MHz vs 1375 MHz

Texture fill rate	2x 10.7 GTexel / s billion / sec vs 118.4 GTexel / s
Thermal Design Power (TDP)	140 Watt vs 300 Watt
Memory clock speed	1656 MHz vs 1375 MHz

Compare benchmarks

GPU 1: AMD Radeon HD 7970
GPU 2: ATI Radeon HD 3850 X2

Name	AMD Radeon HD 7970	ATI Radeon HD 3850 X2
Geekbench - OpenCL	34541
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Face Detection (mPixels/s)	84.381
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Ocean Surface Simulation (Frames/s)	1389.754
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - T-Rex (Frames/s)	8.872
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Video Composition (Frames/s)	101.929
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Bitcoin Mining (mHash/s)	481.76
GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Frames)	9448
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Frames)	3704
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Frames)	3350
GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Fps)	9448
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Fps)	3704
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Fps)	3350
3DMark Fire Strike - Graphics Score	2276
PassMark - G3D Mark		822
PassMark - G2D Mark		422

Compare specifications (specs)

	AMD Radeon HD 7970	ATI Radeon HD 3850 X2
Essentials
Architecture	GCN 1.0	TeraScale
Code name	Tahiti	RV670
Design	AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series
Launch date	22 December 2011	4 April 2008
Launch price (MSRP)	$549	$349
Place in performance rating	483	344
Type	Desktop	Desktop
Technical info
Boost clock speed	925 MHz
Floating-point performance	3,789 gflops	2x 428.2 gflops
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	55 nm
Pipelines	2048	2x 320
Stream Processors	2048
Texture fill rate	118.4 GTexel / s	2x 10.7 GTexel / s billion / sec
Thermal Design Power (TDP)	300 Watt	140 Watt
Transistor count	4,313 million	666 million
Core clock speed		669 MHz
Video outputs and ports
Display Connectors	1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort	2x DVI, 1x S-Video
DisplayPort support
Dual-link DVI support
Eyefinity
HDMI
VGA
Compatibility, dimensions and requirements
Bus support	PCIe 2.1 x16
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 2.0 x16
Length	274 mm	267 mm
Supplementary power connectors	1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin
API support
DirectX	11	10.0
OpenGL	4.5	3.3
Memory
Maximum RAM amount	3 GB	2x 512 MB
Memory bandwidth	264 GB/s	2x 53.0 GB / s
Memory bus width	384 Bit	2x 256 Bit
Memory clock speed	1375 MHz	1656 MHz
Memory type	GDDR5	GDDR3
Shared memory	0
Technologies
AMD Eyefinity
CrossFire
FreeSync