GeForce GTS 450 1GB vs Radeon HD 4830 512MB

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 4830 512MB, which comes with a core clock speed of 575 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 900 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is comprised of 640(128x5) SPUs, 32 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4830 512MB		95 Watts
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		106 Watts
	Difference: 11 Watts (12%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTS 450 1GB should in theory be just a bit better than the Radeon HD 4830 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		57728 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4830 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 128 (0%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 450 1GB will be quite a bit (more or less 36%) better at AF than the Radeon HD 4830 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		25056 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4830 512MB		18400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 6656 (36%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTS 450 1GB should be a lot (more or less 36%) better at AA than the Radeon HD 4830 512MB, and also able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		12528 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4830 512MB		9200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3328 (36%)

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 largest amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type RAM, it 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core clock speed. 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 fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.