Radeon HD 4870 512MB vs Radeon RX 470 4GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon RX 470 4GB, which features a clock speed of 926 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1650 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and makes use of a 14 nm design. It features 2048 SPUs, 128 Texture Address Units, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon RX 470 4GB		120 Watts
Radeon HD 4870 512MB		150 Watts
	Difference: 30 Watts (25%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon RX 470 4GB should theoretically be a lot faster than the Radeon HD 4870 512MB overall. (explain)

Radeon RX 470 4GB		211200 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4870 512MB		115200 MB/sec
	Difference: 96000 (83%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon RX 470 4GB is a lot (more or less 295%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the Radeon HD 4870 512MB. (explain)

Radeon RX 470 4GB		118528 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4870 512MB		30000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 88528 (295%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon RX 470 4GB should be quite a bit (about 147%) more effective at FSAA than the Radeon HD 4870 512MB, and capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon RX 470 4GB		29632 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4870 512MB		12000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 17632 (147%)

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 information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster 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 can be applied in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card 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 applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.