GeForce GTS 450 1GB vs Radeon HD 4550 256MB

Intro

Compare all of that to the Radeon HD 4550 256MB, which uses a 55 nm design. AMD has clocked the core frequency at 600 MHz. The DDR3 memory runs at a speed of 800 MHz on this model. It features 80(16x5) SPUs as well as 8 TAUs and 4 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4550 256MB		25 Watts
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		106 Watts
	Difference: 81 Watts (324%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTS 450 1GB will be 351% faster than the Radeon HD 4550 256MB overall, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		57728 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 44928 (351%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 450 1GB should be quite a bit (more or less 422%) better at AF than the Radeon HD 4550 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		25056 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		4800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 20256 (422%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTS 450 1GB is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		12528 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 256MB		2400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 10128 (422%)

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 MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the 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 clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.