GeForce GTX 550 Ti vs Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB, which makes use of a 55 nm design. AMD has set the core speed at 625 MHz. The GDDR3 memory is set to run at a frequency of 993 MHz on this particular model. It features 800(160x5) SPUs as well as 40 Texture Address Units and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 550 Ti		116 Watts
Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB		250 Watts
	Difference: 134 Watts (116%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB should be 29% quicker than the GeForce GTX 550 Ti overall, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB		127104 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 550 Ti		98496 MB/sec
	Difference: 28608 (29%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB is much (about 74%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTX 550 Ti. (explain)

Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB		50000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 550 Ti		28800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 21200 (74%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 550 Ti is a small bit (more or less 8%) better at FSAA than the Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB, and also will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 550 Ti		21600 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4850 X2 512MB		20000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1600 (8%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video 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 maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number 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 filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.