Radeon RX 480 4GB vs Radeon RX 550

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon RX 550, which makes use of a 14 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 1100 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a speed of 1750 MHz on this specific model. It features 512 SPUs as well as 32 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon RX 550		50 Watts
Radeon RX 480 4GB		150 Watts
	Difference: 100 Watts (200%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon RX 480 4GB will be 100% faster than the Radeon RX 550 overall, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon RX 480 4GB		229376 MB/sec
Radeon RX 550		114688 MB/sec
	Difference: 114688 (100%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon RX 480 4GB is much (approximately 358%) more effective at AF than the Radeon RX 550. (explain)

Radeon RX 480 4GB		161280 Mtexels/sec
Radeon RX 550		35200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 126080 (358%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon RX 480 4GB should be a lot (more or less 104%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the Radeon RX 550, and also capable of handling higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

Radeon RX 480 4GB		35840 Mpixels/sec
Radeon RX 550		17600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 18240 (104%)

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 maximum amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 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, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.