GeForce GTX 460 1GB 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 frequency of 800 MHz. It also uses a 64-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is comprised 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 GTX 460 1GB		160 Watts
	Difference: 135 Watts (540%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 460 1GB should be 800% quicker than the Radeon HD 4550 256MB overall, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		115200 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 102400 (800%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 1GB is much (approximately 688%) more effective at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 4550 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		4800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 33000 (688%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 1GB is superior to the Radeon HD 4550 256MB, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		2400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 19200 (800%)

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 information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.