Radeon HD 4730 vs Radeon HD 4850 512MB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 4850 512MB, which features GPU core speed of 625 MHz, and 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM set to run at 993 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 800(160x5) SPUs, 40 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4850 512MB		110 Watts
Radeon HD 4730		140 Watts
	Difference: 30 Watts (27%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon HD 4850 512MB should theoretically be a little bit faster than the Radeon HD 4730 overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 4850 512MB		63552 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4730		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 5952 (10%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4850 512MB will be a bit (about 12%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the Radeon HD 4730. (explain)

Radeon HD 4850 512MB		25000 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4730		22400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2600 (12%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the Radeon HD 4850 512MB is superior to the Radeon HD 4730, by a large margin. (explain)

Radeon HD 4850 512MB		10000 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4730		5600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4400 (79%)

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 largest amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, 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 processed in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video 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 card could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.