Radeon HD 4850 1GB vs Radeon R7 250

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon R7 250, which features a core clock speed of 1000 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1150 MHz. It also features a 128-bit memory bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It features 384 SPUs, 24 TAUs, and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon R7 250		65 Watts
Radeon HD 4850 1GB		110 Watts
	Difference: 45 Watts (69%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon R7 250 is 16% faster than the Radeon HD 4850 1GB overall, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon R7 250		73600 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4850 1GB		63552 MB/sec
	Difference: 10048 (16%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4850 1GB is a small bit (about 4%) more effective at AF than the Radeon R7 250. (explain)

Radeon HD 4850 1GB		25000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon R7 250		24000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 1000 (4%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the Radeon HD 4850 1GB is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

Radeon HD 4850 1GB		10000 Mpixels/sec
Radeon R7 250		8000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2000 (25%)

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 (measured in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core 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 max fill rate.