GeForce 8800 GTX vs Radeon HD 4850 1GB

Intro

Compare all of that to the Radeon HD 4850 1GB, which makes use of a 55 nm design. AMD has clocked the core frequency at 625 MHz. The GDDR4 memory runs at a frequency of 993 MHz on this specific model. It features 800(160x5) SPUs as well as 40 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4850 1GB		110 Watts
GeForce 8800 GTX		155 Watts
	Difference: 45 Watts (41%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce 8800 GTX should be much faster than the Radeon HD 4850 1GB in general. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		86400 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4850 1GB		63552 MB/sec
	Difference: 22848 (36%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTX is quite a bit (about 47%) better at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 4850 1GB. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		36800 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4850 1GB		25000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 11800 (47%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce 8800 GTX is the winner, by far. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		13800 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4850 1GB		10000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3800 (38%)

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 data (counted in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.