GeForce GTX 560 vs Radeon HD 4550 256MB

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 4550 256MB, which has a clock frequency of 600 MHz and a DDR3 memory speed of 800 MHz. It also uses a 64-bit bus, and uses a 55 nm design. It features 80(16x5) SPUs, 8 TAUs, and 4 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4550 256MB		25 Watts
GeForce GTX 560		150 Watts
	Difference: 125 Watts (500%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 560 should theoretically be much better than the Radeon HD 4550 256MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		128128 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 115328 (901%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 is a lot (about 845%) better at anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 4550 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		45360 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		4800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 40560 (845%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 is much (about 980%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 4550 256MB, and capable of handling higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		25920 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		2400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 23520 (980%)

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.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.