Compare any two graphics cards:
VS

GeForce GTX 550 Ti vs Radeon HD 7950 3GB

Intro

The GeForce GTX 550 Ti uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 900 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a speed of 1026 MHz on this card. It features 192 SPUs as well as 32 Texture Address Units and 24 Rasterization Operator Units.

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 7950 3GB, which uses a 28 nm design. AMD has clocked the core speed at 800 MHz. The GDDR5 memory is set to run at a frequency of 1250 MHz on this model. It features 1792 SPUs as well as 112 Texture Address Units and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 550 Ti 116 Watts
Radeon HD 7950 3GB 200 Watts
Difference: 84 Watts (72%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the Radeon HD 7950 3GB should perform much faster than the GeForce GTX 550 Ti in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 7950 3GB 240000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 550 Ti 98496 MB/sec
Difference: 141504 (144%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 7950 3GB is quite a bit (approximately 211%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTX 550 Ti. (explain)

Radeon HD 7950 3GB 89600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 550 Ti 28800 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 60800 (211%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the Radeon HD 7950 3GB is a better choice, but only just. (explain)

Radeon HD 7950 3GB 25600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 550 Ti 21600 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 4000 (19%)

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

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce GTX 550 Ti

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 7950 3GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

Display Specifications

Hide Specifications

Model GeForce GTX 550 Ti Radeon HD 7950 3GB
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year March 2011 January 2012
Code Name GF116 Tahiti Pro
Memory 1024 MB 3072 MB
Core Speed 900 MHz 800 MHz
Memory Speed 4104 MHz 5000 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 116 watts 200 watts
Bandwidth 98496 MB/sec 240000 MB/sec
Texel Rate 28800 Mtexels/sec 89600 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 21600 Mpixels/sec 25600 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 192 1792
Texture Mapping Units 32 112
Render Output Units 24 32
Bus Type GDDR5 GDDR5
Bus Width 192-bit 384-bit
Fab Process 40 nm 28 nm
Transistors 1170 million 4313 million
Bus PCIe 2.1 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
DirectX Version DirectX 11 DirectX 11.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 4.1 OpenGL 4.2

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel 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.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce GTX 550 Ti

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 7950 3GB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Comments

One Response to “GeForce GTX 550 Ti vs Radeon HD 7950 3GB”
ali says:

can anyone help me selecting a graphic card for gaming that is compatible with my PC.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


*

WordPress Anti Spam by WP-SpamShield