Radeon HD 4550 256MB vs Radeon HD 7850

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 7850, which has GPU core speed of 860 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 1200 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 1024 Stream Processors, 64 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4550 256MB		25 Watts
Radeon HD 7850		130 Watts
	Difference: 105 Watts (420%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Radeon HD 7850 should in theory be quite a bit better than the Radeon HD 4550 256MB in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 7850		153600 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 140800 (1100%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 7850 is a lot (approximately 1047%) better at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 4550 256MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 7850		55040 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		4800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 50240 (1047%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 7850 is a lot (more or less 1047%) better at FSAA than the Radeon HD 4550 256MB, and also should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

Radeon HD 7850		27520 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		2400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 25120 (1047%)

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 information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

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