GeForce GTX 560 vs Radeon HD 4550 512MB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 4550 512MB, which makes use of a 55 nm design. AMD has set the core speed at 600 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM works at a speed of 800 MHz on this specific model. It features 80(16x5) SPUs along with 8 Texture Address Units and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4550 512MB		25 Watts
GeForce GTX 560		150 Watts
	Difference: 125 Watts (500%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 560 is 901% faster than the Radeon HD 4550 512MB overall, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		128128 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4550 512MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 115328 (901%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 is a lot (about 845%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 4550 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		45360 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 512MB		4800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 40560 (845%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 will be a lot (approximately 980%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 4550 512MB, and will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		25920 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 512MB		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 largest amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.