GeForce GTS 450 1GB vs Radeon HD 4890 2GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 4890 2GB, which makes use of a 55 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 1000 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a frequency of 975 MHz on this model. It features 800(160x5) SPUs along with 40 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		106 Watts
Radeon HD 4890 2GB		190 Watts
	Difference: 84 Watts (79%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon HD 4890 2GB should perform a lot faster than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 4890 2GB		124800 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		57728 MB/sec
	Difference: 67072 (116%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4890 2GB should be a lot (more or less 60%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB. (explain)

Radeon HD 4890 2GB		40000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		25056 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 14944 (60%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the Radeon HD 4890 2GB is superior to the GeForce GTS 450 1GB, and very much so. (explain)

Radeon HD 4890 2GB		16000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		12528 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3472 (28%)

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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher 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 number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.