GeForce GTX 480 vs Radeon HD 4550 256MB

Intro

Compare all of that to the Radeon HD 4550 256MB, which uses a 55 nm design. AMD has clocked the core frequency at 600 MHz. The DDR3 memory is set to run at a frequency of 800 MHz on this card. It features 80(16x5) SPUs as well as 8 TAUs and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4550 256MB		25 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 225 Watts (900%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 480 should theoretically be quite a bit superior to the Radeon HD 4550 256MB overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 164608 (1286%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 is much (approximately 775%) more effective at AF than the Radeon HD 4550 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		4800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 37200 (775%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 480 is superior to the Radeon HD 4550 256MB, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		2400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 31200 (1300%)

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 data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the card will be at handling 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 can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.