Radeon HD 4730 vs Radeon R9 270X

Intro

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

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4730		140 Watts
Radeon R9 270X		180 Watts
	Difference: 40 Watts (29%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon R9 270X will be 211% quicker than the Radeon HD 4730 overall, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon R9 270X		179200 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4730		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 121600 (211%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 270X should be a lot (approximately 257%) better at AF than the Radeon HD 4730. (explain)

Radeon R9 270X		80000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4730		22400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 57600 (257%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 270X will be much (more or less 471%) better at AA than the Radeon HD 4730, and should be able to handle higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon R9 270X		32000 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4730		5600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 26400 (471%)

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 max amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics 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 maximum number of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.