GeForce GTX 460 vs Radeon HD 4550 512MB

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 4550 512MB, which has a clock frequency of 600 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 800 MHz. It also features a 64-bit bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It features 80(16x5) SPUs, 8 TAUs, and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4550 512MB		25 Watts
GeForce GTX 460		150 Watts
	Difference: 125 Watts (500%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 460 should be much faster than the Radeon HD 4550 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		86400 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4550 512MB		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 73600 (575%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 should be much (approximately 688%) faster with regards to AF than the Radeon HD 4550 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		37800 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 512MB		4800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 33000 (688%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 will be much (approximately 575%) better at AA than the Radeon HD 4550 512MB, and should be able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		16200 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4550 512MB		2400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 13800 (575%)

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: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at 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 could possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.