Radeon HD 4550 256MB vs Radeon R7 240

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon R7 240, which features a clock speed of 730 MHz and a DDR3 memory speed of 900 MHz. It also features a 128-bit memory bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is made up of 320 SPUs, 20 TAUs, and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4550 256MB		25 Watts
Radeon R7 240		30 Watts
	Difference: 5 Watts (20%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Radeon R7 240 should theoretically be much better than the Radeon HD 4550 256MB overall. (explain)

Radeon R7 240		28800 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 16000 (125%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R7 240 is much (more or less 204%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the Radeon HD 4550 256MB. (explain)

Radeon R7 240		14600 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		4800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 9800 (204%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R7 240 is a lot (more or less 143%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 4550 256MB, and capable of handling higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

Radeon R7 240		5840 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		2400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3440 (143%)

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 MB 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 the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics 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 most pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.