GeForce GTS 450 vs Radeon HD 4550 256MB

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 4550 256MB, which comes with a core clock frequency of 600 MHz and a DDR3 memory speed of 800 MHz. It also uses a 64-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is made up of 80(16x5) SPUs, 8 TAUs, and 4 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4550 256MB		25 Watts
GeForce GTS 450		106 Watts
	Difference: 81 Watts (324%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTS 450 is 351% faster than the Radeon HD 4550 256MB in general, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450		57728 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 44928 (351%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 450 is quite a bit (approximately 422%) more effective at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 4550 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450		25056 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		4800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 20256 (422%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTS 450 is quite a bit (approximately 422%) better at AA than the Radeon HD 4550 256MB, and also capable of handling higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450		12528 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		2400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 10128 (422%)

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 information (measured in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.