Radeon HD 5550 vs Radeon R9 270X

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon R9 270X, which has a core clock speed of 1000 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1400 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It features 1280 SPUs, 80 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Radeon R9 270X should in theory be quite a bit better than the Radeon HD 5550 in general. (explain)

Radeon R9 270X		179200 MB/sec
Radeon HD 5550		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 166400 (1300%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 270X should be quite a bit (about 809%) more effective at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 5550. (explain)

Radeon R9 270X		80000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 5550		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 71200 (809%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 270X should be a lot (more or less 627%) faster with regards to FSAA than the Radeon HD 5550, and capable of handling higher resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon R9 270X		32000 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 5550		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 27600 (627%)

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: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better 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 can be processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core 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 per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core 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, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.