Radeon HD 3870 512MB vs Radeon HD 4550 512MB

Intro

Compare all of that to the Radeon HD 4550 512MB, which uses a 55 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 600 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM runs at a frequency of 800 MHz on this particular model. It features 80(16x5) SPUs as well as 8 TAUs and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4550 512MB		25 Watts
Radeon HD 3870 512MB		106 Watts
	Difference: 81 Watts (324%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon HD 3870 512MB should theoretically be quite a bit faster than the Radeon HD 4550 512MB overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 512MB		57600 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4550 512MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 44800 (350%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 3870 512MB should be quite a bit (approximately 158%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 4550 512MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 512MB		12400 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 512MB		4800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 7600 (158%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 3870 512MB will be much (about 417%) better at FSAA than the Radeon HD 4550 512MB, and also will be able to handle higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

Radeon HD 3870 512MB		12400 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 512MB		2400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 10000 (417%)

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 data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video 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 the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.