GeForce GTX 550 Ti vs GeForce GTX 970

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 970, which has a GPU core clock speed of 1050 MHz, and 4096 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1750 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 1664 SPUs, 104 TAUs, and 64 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Benchmarks

These are real-world performance benchmarks that were submitted by Hardware Compare users. The scores seen here are the average of all benchmarks submitted for each respective test and hardware.

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score

GeForce GTX 970		10867 points
GeForce GTX 550 Ti		1897 points
	Difference: 8970 (473%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 550 Ti		116 Watts
GeForce GTX 970		145 Watts
	Difference: 29 Watts (25%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 970 should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 550 Ti overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		224000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 550 Ti		98496 MB/sec
	Difference: 125504 (127%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970 will be a lot (approximately 279%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 550 Ti. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		109200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 550 Ti		28800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 80400 (279%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970 will be quite a bit (approximately 211%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 550 Ti, and also capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		67200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 550 Ti		21600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 45600 (211%)

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 max amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.