GeForce 256 DDR vs ATI Radeon HD 3870
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | 996 | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | 0.06 | no data |
| Power efficiency | 0.93 | no data |
| Architecture | TeraScale (2005−2013) | Celsius (1999−2005) |
| GPU code name | RV670 | NV10 A3 |
| Market segment | Desktop | Desktop |
| Release date | 19 November 2007 (17 years ago) | 23 December 1999 (24 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $269 | no data |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.
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 | no data |
| Core clock speed | 777 MHz | 120 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 666 million | 17 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 55 nm | 220 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 106 Watt | no data |
| Texture fill rate | 12.43 | 0.48 |
| Floating-point processing power | 0.4973 TFLOPS | no data |
| ROPs | 16 | 4 |
| TMUs | 16 | 4 |
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 | AGP 4x |
| Length | 241 mm | no data |
| Width | 2-slot | 1-slot |
| Supplementary power connectors | 1x 6-pin | None |
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 | GDDR4 | DDR |
| Maximum RAM amount | 512 MB | 32 MB |
| Memory bus width | 256 Bit | 128 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 1126 MHz | 150 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 72.06 GB/s | 4.8 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 | 1x VGA |
API compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 10.1 (10_1) | 7.0 |
| Shader Model | 4.1 | no data |
| OpenGL | 3.3 | 1.2 |
| OpenCL | N/A | N/A |
| Vulkan | N/A | N/A |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 19 November 2007 | 23 December 1999 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 512 MB | 32 MB |
| Chip lithography | 55 nm | 220 nm |
ATI HD 3870 has an age advantage of 7 years, a 1500% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 300% more advanced lithography process.
We couldn't decide between Radeon HD 3870 and GeForce 256 DDR. We've got no test results to judge.
Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
Comparisons with similar GPUs
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