GeForce GTS 450 1GB vs Radeon HD 4550 256MB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 4550 256MB, which makes use of a 55 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 600 MHz. The DDR3 RAM is set to run at a frequency of 800 MHz on this model. It features 80(16x5) SPUs as well as 8 TAUs and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4550 256MB		25 Watts
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		106 Watts
	Difference: 81 Watts (324%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTS 450 1GB should theoretically be much better than the Radeon HD 4550 256MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		57728 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 44928 (351%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 450 1GB is much (more or less 422%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 4550 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		25056 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		4800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 20256 (422%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTS 450 1GB will be a lot (about 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 1GB		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: Bandwidth is the max amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the clock 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 rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.