Radeon HD 4790 vs Radeon R9 M280X

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon R9 M280X, which comes with GPU core speed of 900 MHz, and 4096 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1375 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also features 896 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon HD 4790 should perform a small bit faster than the Radeon R9 M280X in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 4790		102400 MB/sec
Radeon R9 M280X		88000 MB/sec
	Difference: 14400 (16%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 M280X is much (more or less 163%) more effective at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 4790. (explain)

Radeon R9 M280X		50400 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4790		19200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 31200 (163%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the Radeon R9 M280X is a better choice, by far. (explain)

Radeon R9 M280X		14400 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4790		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4800 (50%)

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 (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This figure 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 worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.