GeForce GTX 1050 vs Radeon HD 4870 512MB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 4870 512MB, which features a clock frequency of 750 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 900 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is made up of 800(160x5) SPUs, 40 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 1050		75 Watts
Radeon HD 4870 512MB		150 Watts
	Difference: 75 Watts (100%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Radeon HD 4870 512MB should in theory be a bit better than the GeForce GTX 1050 in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 4870 512MB		115200 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 1050		114688 MB/sec
	Difference: 512 (0%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1050 will be much (approximately 81%) more effective at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 4870 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1050		54160 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4870 512MB		30000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 24160 (81%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 1050 is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1050		43328 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4870 512MB		12000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 31328 (261%)

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 max amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.