Radeon HD 7850 vs Radeon R9 270X

Intro

The Radeon HD 7850 comes with a GPU core speed of 860 MHz, and the 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM runs at 1200 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 1024 SPUs, 64 Texture Address Units, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Compare all that to the Radeon R9 270X, which features a core clock frequency of 1000 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1400 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It is made up of 1280 SPUs, 80 Texture Address Units, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

(No game benchmarks for this combination yet.)

 

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 7850		130 Watts
Radeon R9 270X		180 Watts
	Difference: 50 Watts (38%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Radeon R9 270X should in theory be a small bit better than the Radeon HD 7850 in general. (explain)

 

Radeon R9 270X		179200 MB/sec
Radeon HD 7850		153600 MB/sec
	Difference: 25600 (17%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 270X is much (approximately 45%) more effective at AF than the Radeon HD 7850. (explain)

 

Radeon R9 270X		80000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 7850		55040 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 24960 (45%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 270X should be a little bit (more or less 16%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 7850, and will be able to handle higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

 

Radeon R9 270X		32000 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 7850		27520 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4480 (16%)

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.