Radeon HD 4670 512MB vs Radeon HD 5550

Intro

Compare all of that to the Radeon HD 5550, which features a clock frequency of 550 MHz and a DDR2 memory frequency of 400 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is made up of 320(64x5) SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon HD 4670 512MB will be 150% quicker than the Radeon HD 5550 in general, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon HD 4670 512MB		32000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 5550		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 19200 (150%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4670 512MB is a lot (approximately 173%) more effective at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 5550. (explain)

Radeon HD 4670 512MB		24000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 5550		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 15200 (173%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 4670 512MB is quite a bit (about 36%) better at FSAA than the Radeon HD 5550, and should be able to handle higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon HD 4670 512MB		6000 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 5550		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1600 (36%)

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: Bandwidth is the max amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour 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 rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.