Radeon HD 4850 512MB vs Radeon R9 270X

Intro

Compare all of that to the Radeon R9 270X, which makes use of a 28 nm design. AMD has clocked the core speed at 1000 MHz. The GDDR5 memory is set to run at a frequency of 1400 MHz on this particular model. It features 1280 SPUs along with 80 TAUs and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4850 512MB		110 Watts
Radeon R9 270X		180 Watts
	Difference: 70 Watts (64%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon R9 270X should theoretically be quite a bit faster than the Radeon HD 4850 512MB overall. (explain)

Radeon R9 270X		179200 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4850 512MB		63552 MB/sec
	Difference: 115648 (182%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 270X will be much (approximately 220%) faster with regards to AF than the Radeon HD 4850 512MB. (explain)

Radeon R9 270X		80000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4850 512MB		25000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 55000 (220%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the Radeon R9 270X is superior to the Radeon HD 4850 512MB, by far. (explain)

Radeon R9 270X		32000 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4850 512MB		10000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 22000 (220%)

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

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.