ATI Radeon HD 2900 GT vs ATI HD 3850

Place in the ranking	1100	1151
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	0.02	no data
Power efficiency	0.94	0.35
Architecture	TeraScale (2005−2013)	TeraScale (2005−2013)
GPU code name	RV670	R600
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	19 November 2007 (16 years ago)	6 November 2007 (17 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$179	no data

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	240
Core clock speed	668 MHz	601 MHz
Number of transistors	666 million	720 million
Manufacturing process technology	55 nm	80 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	75 Watt	150 Watt
Texture fill rate	10.69	7.212
Floating-point processing power	0.4275 TFLOPS	0.2885 TFLOPS
ROPs	16	12
TMUs	16	12

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).

Interface	PCIe 2.0 x16	PCIe 1.0 x16
Length	208 mm	no data
Width	1-slot	2-slot
Supplementary power connectors	1x 6-pin	1x 8-pin

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	GDDR3
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	256 MB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	830 MHz	800 MHz
Memory bandwidth	53.12 GB/s	51.2 GB/s

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

API compatibility

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

DirectX	10.1 (10_1)	10.0 (10_0)
Shader Model	4.1	4.0
OpenGL	3.3	3.3
OpenCL	N/A	N/A
Vulkan	N/A	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 1.02
+34.2%

ATI HD 2900 GT 0.76

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 392
+34.2%

ATI HD 2900 GT 292

Gaming performance

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

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	1.02	0.76
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	256 MB
Chip lithography	55 nm	80 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	75 Watt	150 Watt

ATI HD 3850 has a 34.2% higher aggregate performance score, a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 45.5% more advanced lithography process, and 100% lower power consumption.

The Radeon HD 3850 is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 2900 GT in performance tests.

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