GeForce GTX 570 vs Radeon HD 4550 512MB

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 4550 512MB, which features a clock frequency of 600 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 800 MHz. It also features a 64-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is comprised of 80(16x5) SPUs, 8 Texture Address Units, and 4 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4550 512MB		25 Watts
GeForce GTX 570		219 Watts
	Difference: 194 Watts (776%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 570, in theory, should perform quite a bit faster than the Radeon HD 4550 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 570		152000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4550 512MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 139200 (1088%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 570 is quite a bit (approximately 815%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the Radeon HD 4550 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 570		43920 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 512MB		4800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 39120 (815%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 570 will be quite a bit (about 1120%) faster with regards to AA than the Radeon HD 4550 512MB, and also will be able to handle higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 570		29280 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 512MB		2400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 26880 (1120%)

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 maximum amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range 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 calculated by multiplying the total amount of 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 handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number 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 quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.