GeForce GTS 450 1GB vs GeForce GTX 550 Ti

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 550 Ti, which has GPU core speed of 900 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1026 MHz through a 192-bit bus. It also features 192 Stream Processors, 32 Texture Address Units, and 24 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		106 Watts
GeForce GTX 550 Ti		116 Watts
	Difference: 10 Watts (9%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 550 Ti is 71% quicker than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB overall, because of its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 550 Ti		98496 MB/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		57728 MB/sec
	Difference: 40768 (71%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 550 Ti will be a small bit (more or less 15%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTS 450 1GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 550 Ti		28800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		25056 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 3744 (15%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 550 Ti is superior to the GeForce GTS 450 1GB, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 550 Ti		21600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		12528 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9072 (72%)

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 (measured in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. 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 higher screen resolutions.

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

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