Radeon HD 4870 512MB vs Radeon HD 5450

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 5450, which features a clock speed of 650 MHz and a DDR3 memory speed of 800 MHz. It also makes use of a 64-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It features 80(16x5) SPUs, 8 Texture Address Units, and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 5450		19 Watts
Radeon HD 4870 512MB		150 Watts
	Difference: 131 Watts (689%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 4870 512MB is 800% quicker than the Radeon HD 5450 overall, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

Radeon HD 4870 512MB		115200 MB/sec
Radeon HD 5450		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 102400 (800%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4870 512MB is quite a bit (more or less 477%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 5450. (explain)

Radeon HD 4870 512MB		30000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 5450		5200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 24800 (477%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 4870 512MB should be quite a bit (approximately 362%) more effective at AA than the Radeon HD 5450, and also will be able to handle higher resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon HD 4870 512MB		12000 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 5450		2600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9400 (362%)

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 (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed 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 worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.