Radeon HD 4550 256MB vs Radeon HD 6570 (OEM) 2GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 6570 (OEM) 2GB, which has a core clock frequency of 650 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1000 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 480 SPUs, 24 TAUs, and 8 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4550 256MB		25 Watts
Radeon HD 6570 (OEM) 2GB		50 Watts
	Difference: 25 Watts (100%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the Radeon HD 6570 (OEM) 2GB should in theory be a lot superior to the Radeon HD 4550 256MB overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 6570 (OEM) 2GB		64000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 51200 (400%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 6570 (OEM) 2GB will be a lot (about 225%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the Radeon HD 4550 256MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 6570 (OEM) 2GB		15600 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		4800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 10800 (225%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the Radeon HD 6570 (OEM) 2GB is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

Radeon HD 6570 (OEM) 2GB		5200 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		2400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2800 (117%)

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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster 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 applied in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs 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 fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.