GeForce GTX 1050 3GB vs Radeon HD 5850

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 5850, which features GPU core speed of 725 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1000 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 1440(288x5) Stream Processors, 72 Texture Address Units, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 1050 3GB		75 Watts
Radeon HD 5850		151 Watts
	Difference: 76 Watts (101%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon HD 5850 should theoretically be much faster than the GeForce GTX 1050 3GB overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 5850		128000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 1050 3GB		86016 MB/sec
	Difference: 41984 (49%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1050 3GB is quite a bit (about 28%) more effective at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 5850. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1050 3GB		66816 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 5850		52200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 14616 (28%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1050 3GB will be quite a bit (more or less 44%) better at FSAA than the Radeon HD 5850, and also able to handle higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1050 3GB		33408 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 5850		23200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 10208 (44%)

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 maximum amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated 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 drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends 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.