Radeon R7 250 vs ATI HD 3850 AGP

Place in the ranking	1078	800
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	no data	0.10
Power efficiency	1.04	2.95
Architecture	TeraScale (2005−2013)	GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)
GPU code name	RV670	Oland
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Design	no data	reference
Release date	3 January 2008 (16 years ago)	8 October 2013 (11 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	no data	$89

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	320	384
Core clock speed	668 MHz	no data
Boost clock speed	no data	1050 MHz
Number of transistors	666 million	950 million
Manufacturing process technology	55 nm	28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	75 Watt	75 Watt
Texture fill rate	10.69	25.20
Floating-point processing power	0.4275 TFLOPS	0.8064 TFLOPS
ROPs	16	8
TMUs	16	24

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Bus support	no data	PCIe 3.0
Interface	AGP 8x	PCIe 3.0 x8
Length	no data	168 mm
Width	1-slot	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	1x 8-pin	N/A

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory type	GDDR3	GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount	512 MB	2 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	828 MHz	1150 MHz
Memory bandwidth	52.99 GB/s	72 GB/s
Shared memory	-	-

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors	2x DVI, 1x S-Video	1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x VGA
HDMI	-	+

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

AppAcceleration	-	+
CrossFire	-	+
FreeSync	-	+
DDMA audio	no data	+

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX	10.1 (10_1)	DirectX® 12
Shader Model	4.1	5.1
OpenGL	3.3	4.6
OpenCL	N/A	1.2
Vulkan	N/A	-

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

ATI HD 3850 AGP 1.12

R7 250 2.75
+146%

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

ATI HD 3850 AGP 432

R7 250 1059
+145%

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:

Full HD

8−9

−150%

20
+150%

Cost per frame, $

1080p

no data

4.45

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

5−6

+0%

5−6

+0%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	9−10 +0%	9−10 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Battlefield 5	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
Far Cry 5	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	14−16 +0%	14−16 +0%
Hitman 3	8−9 +0%	8−9 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	21−24 +0%	21−24 +0%
Metro Exodus	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	12−14 +0%	12−14 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 +0%	35−40 +0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	9−10 +0%	9−10 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Battlefield 5	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
Far Cry 5	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	14−16 +0%	14−16 +0%
Hitman 3	8−9 +0%	8−9 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	21−24 +0%	21−24 +0%
Metro Exodus	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	12−14 +0%	12−14 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16 +0%	14−16 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 +0%	35−40 +0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	9−10 +0%	9−10 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
Far Cry 5	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	14−16 +0%	14−16 +0%
Hitman 3	8−9 +0%	8−9 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	21−24 +0%	21−24 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	12−14 +0%	12−14 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16 +0%	14−16 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 +0%	35−40 +0%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

7−8

+0%

7−8

+0%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Far Cry 5	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
Hitman 3	8−9 +0%	8−9 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	16−18 +0%	16−18 +0%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

6−7

+0%

6−7

+0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Far Cry 5	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	0−1	0−1
Watch Dogs: Legion	0−1	0−1

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

4−5

+0%

4−5

+0%

This is how ATI HD 3850 AGP and R7 250 compete in popular games:

R7 250 is 150% faster in 1080p

All in all, in popular games:

there's a draw in 60 tests (100%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	1.12	2.75
Recency	3 January 2008	8 October 2013
Maximum RAM amount	512 MB	2 GB
Chip lithography	55 nm	28 nm

R7 250 has a 145.5% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 5 years, a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 96.4% more advanced lithography process.

The Radeon R7 250 is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 3850 AGP in performance tests.

Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.