GeForce GT 420 vs Radeon HD 5450

Intro

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

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 5450		19 Watts
GeForce GT 420		50 Watts
	Difference: 31 Watts (163%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GT 420 will be 125% quicker than the Radeon HD 5450 in general, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GT 420		28800 MB/sec
Radeon HD 5450		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 16000 (125%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 420 will be a small bit (approximately 8%) more effective at AF than the Radeon HD 5450. (explain)

GeForce GT 420		5600 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 5450		5200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 400 (8%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 420 will be just a bit (more or less 8%) better at anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 5450, and able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GT 420		2800 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 5450		2600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 200 (8%)

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 largest amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. 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 output rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.