Radeon HD 4550 512MB vs Radeon HD 4650 512MB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 4650 512MB, which makes use of a 55 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 600 MHz. The DDR2 RAM is set to run at a speed of 500 MHz on this particular model. It features 320(64x5) SPUs as well as 32 TAUs and 8 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4550 512MB		25 Watts
Radeon HD 4650 512MB		55 Watts
	Difference: 30 Watts (120%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 4650 512MB should be much faster than the Radeon HD 4550 512MB overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 4650 512MB		16000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4550 512MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 3200 (25%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4650 512MB will be much (more or less 300%) more effective at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 4550 512MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 4650 512MB		19200 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 512MB		4800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 14400 (300%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the Radeon HD 4650 512MB is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

Radeon HD 4650 512MB		4800 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 512MB		2400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2400 (100%)

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 (measured in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the 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 amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs 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 also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.