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Radeon HD 4550 256MB vs Radeon HD 5550

Intro

The Radeon HD 4550 256MB makes use of a 55 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 600 MHz. The DDR3 memory works at a frequency of 800 MHz on this specific card. It features 80(16x5) SPUs along with 8 TAUs and 4 ROPs.

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 5550, which uses a 40 nm design. AMD has clocked the core frequency at 550 MHz. The DDR2 RAM works at a speed of 400 MHz on this particular card. It features 320(64x5) SPUs along with 16 Texture Address Units and 8 Rasterization Operator Units.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

Both cards have the exact same bandwidth, so in theory they should perform exactly the same. (explain)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 5550 is a lot (about 83%) faster with regards to AF than the Radeon HD 4550 256MB. (explain)

Radeon HD 5550 8800 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB 4800 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 4000 (83%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 5550 is quite a bit (approximately 83%) faster with regards to AA than the Radeon HD 4550 256MB, and should be able to handle higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

Radeon HD 5550 4400 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB 2400 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 2000 (83%)

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

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Radeon HD 4550 256MB

Amazon.com

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Radeon HD 5550

Amazon.com

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Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

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Model Radeon HD 4550 256MB Radeon HD 5550
Manufacturer AMD AMD
Year Sep 30, 2008 February 9, 2010
Code Name RV710 Redwood LE
Memory 256 MB 512 MB
Core Speed 600 MHz 550 MHz
Memory Speed 1600 MHz 800 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 25 watts (Unknown) watts
Bandwidth 12800 MB/sec 12800 MB/sec
Texel Rate 4800 Mtexels/sec 8800 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 2400 Mpixels/sec 4400 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 80(16x5) 320(64x5)
Texture Mapping Units 8 16
Render Output Units 4 8
Bus Type DDR3 DDR2
Bus Width 64-bit 128-bit
Fab Process 55 nm 40 nm
Transistors 242 million 627 million
Bus PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 2.1 x16
DirectX Version DirectX 10.1 DirectX 11
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.2

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory per 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 - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.

Display Prices

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Radeon HD 4550 256MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 5550

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

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