Radeon HD 4830 512MB vs Radeon R9 270

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon R9 270, which makes use of a 28 nm design. AMD has set the core speed at 900 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a frequency of 1400 MHz on this model. It features 1280 SPUs along with 80 Texture Address Units and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4830 512MB		95 Watts
Radeon R9 270		150 Watts
	Difference: 55 Watts (58%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon R9 270, in theory, should perform a lot faster than the Radeon HD 4830 512MB overall. (explain)

Radeon R9 270		179200 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4830 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 121600 (211%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 270 will be a lot (approximately 291%) faster with regards to AF than the Radeon HD 4830 512MB. (explain)

Radeon R9 270		72000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4830 512MB		18400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 53600 (291%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 270 should be quite a bit (approximately 213%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 4830 512MB, and capable of handling higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

Radeon R9 270		28800 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4830 512MB		9200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 19600 (213%)

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 moved across the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.