AMD Radeon R7 Graphics vs NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The single benchmark comparison available between the AMD Radeon R7 Graphics and the NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 is the Geekbench OpenCL test. The NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 records a score of 4893, while the AMD Radeon R7 Graphics trails at 4015. This represents a 17.9% deficit for the AMD integrated part, a decisive margin in a compute-oriented workload. The GTS 450’s victory here is not marginal; it is a clear, double-digit performance gap that places the discrete NVIDIA card in a different tier for OpenCL execution.

The AMD Radeon R7 Graphics does have a second benchmark result, a Geekbench Vulkan score of 5980, but the GTS 450 has no corresponding Vulkan entry in the data. This asymmetry matters. In Vulkan, the AMD part demonstrates a capability that the NVIDIA Fermi-based card does not expose in the benchmark database. However, for the only head-to-head test, the GTS 450 dominates. The average benchmark score for the AMD Radeon R7 Graphics is 4998, which is higher than its OpenCL score alone because the Vulkan result pulls the average upward. The GTS 450’s average benchmark score is identical to its OpenCL score at 4893, as that is its sole recorded benchmark.

Contextualizing these scores against the nearest rivals reinforces the ordinariness of both parts. The AMD Radeon R7 Graphics sits at the 29th percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 4998. Its closest competitors include the NVIDIA Quadro 4000 at 4979 (a 0.4% difference), the AMD Radeon R5 M430 at 5018 (-0.4%), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB at 4970 (0.6%), and the AMD FirePro W4170M at 5034 (-0.7%). These deltas are all under one percent, indicating that the R7 Graphics is clustered tightly with a broad range of GPUs from vastly different eras and price points. The GTS 450, at the 28th percentile, has an average score of 4893. Its rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB at 4901 (-0.2%), the AMD FirePro W5130M at 4904 (-0.2%), the AMD Radeon R6 M255DX at 4867 (0.5%), and the AMD Radeon R7 M265 at 4929 (-0.7%). Again, the margins are negligible, suggesting that the GTS 450 performs near the statistical mean of its immediate peers.

The head-to-head delta of -17.9% is therefore the single most important comparative statistic. It shows that while both cards occupy similar percentile ranks (29th vs. 28th), the actual OpenCL scores diverge significantly. The percentile ranks are averages across different benchmark suites, but the direct comparison reveals a lopsided result in favor of the discrete NVIDIA card.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins the Geekbench OpenCL benchmark?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 wins with a score of 4893, compared to the AMD Radeon R7 Graphics’ 4015, a 17.9% advantage.

Q: Does the AMD Radeon R7 Graphics have any benchmark advantage?

A: The AMD part has a Geekbench Vulkan score of 5980, while the NVIDIA GTS 450 has no Vulkan benchmark recorded in the data, so the AMD part shows capability in that API that the NVIDIA card does not demonstrate.

Q: How do these GPUs compare to their nearest rivals?

A: The AMD Radeon R7 Graphics’ average score of 4998 is within 0.7% of its closest rivals, including the NVIDIA Quadro 4000 (4979) and the AMD FirePro W4170M (5034). The GTS 450’s average score of 4893 is within 0.7% of its closest rivals, such as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB (4901) and the AMD Radeon R7 M265 (4929).

Q: What are the percentile rankings of these two GPUs?

A: The AMD Radeon R7 Graphics is at the 29th percentile of all GPUs, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 is at the 28th percentile.

Q: Which GPU has a higher pixel fill rate?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 has a pixel rate of 6.264 GPixel/s, which is higher than the AMD Radeon R7 Graphics’ 5.760 GPixel/s.

Q: Which GPU has a higher texture fill rate?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 has a texture rate of 25.06 GTexel/s, substantially higher than the AMD Radeon R7 Graphics’ 17.28 GTexel/s.

Architecture Differences

The AMD Radeon R7 Graphics is built on the GCN 2.0 architecture, specifically using the Spectre Lite chip, and is classified as a GCN 2.0 IGP from the Kaveri generation. It is fabricated on a 28 nm process at GlobalFoundries, with 2,410 million transistors on a 245 mm² die. The transistor density is 9.8 million per mm². This is a modern integrated graphics solution that shares system memory, with no dedicated VRAM.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450, in contrast, uses the Fermi architecture with the GF106 chip, from the GeForce 400 generation. It is manufactured on a 40 nm process at TSMC, with 1,170 million transistors on a 238 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 4.9 million per mm². The GTS 450 is a discrete card with its own 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus.

The architectural split is stark. The AMD part is an integrated processor that relies on system memory, while the NVIDIA part is a dedicated discrete GPU with dedicated memory. The AMD chip packs more than double the transistors (2,410 million vs. 1,170 million) on a nearly identical die size (245 mm² vs. 238 mm²), reflecting the denser 28 nm process. However, the NVIDIA card uses more shading units in terms of raw FP32 throughput: the GTS 450 delivers 601.3 GFLOPS compared to the AMD part’s 553.0 GFLOPS, despite having only 192 shading units versus 384. This is because the Fermi architecture’s cores are arranged differently, and the AMD GCN design uses a wider but slower configuration.

The AMD Radeon R7 Graphics supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The NVIDIA GTS 450 supports DirectX 12 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.6, but has no Vulkan support listed. This is a critical feature divergence: the R7 Graphics is fully modern in its API support, while the GTS 450 is limited to an older DirectX feature level and lacks Vulkan entirely.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ in nearly every measurable specification, reflecting their fundamentally different designs.

Process and Die: The AMD Radeon R7 Graphics uses a 28 nm process at GlobalFoundries, while the NVIDIA GTS 450 uses a 40 nm process at TSMC. The AMD die is 245 mm², the NVIDIA die is 238 mm².

Transistors: AMD packs 2,410 million transistors, NVIDIA has 1,170 million. Density is 9.8M/mm² for AMD and 4.9M/mm² for NVIDIA.

Memory: The AMD part uses System Shared memory with system-dependent bandwidth. The NVIDIA card has 1024 MB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus, with 57.73 GB/s bandwidth and a memory clock of 902 MHz (3.6 Gbps effective).

Shading Units: AMD has 384, NVIDIA has 192.

Texture Mapping Units: AMD has 24, NVIDIA has 32.

Render Output Units: AMD has 8, NVIDIA has 16.

Pixel Rate: AMD 5.760 GPixel/s, NVIDIA 6.264 GPixel/s.

Texture Rate: AMD 17.28 GTexel/s, NVIDIA 25.06 GTexel/s.

FP32 Performance: AMD 553.0 GFLOPS, NVIDIA 601.3 GFLOPS.

Power and Cooling: The AMD Radeon R7 Graphics has a TDP of 25 W and is an IGP with motherboard-dependent outputs. The NVIDIA GTS 450 has a TDP of 106 W, is a dual-slot card requiring a 300 W suggested PSU, uses a 1x 6-pin power connector, and has a PCIe 2.0 x16 bus interface. The NVIDIA card measures 210 mm in length and 111 mm in height.

Display Outputs: AMD is motherboard-dependent, while NVIDIA offers 2x DVI and 1x mini-HDMI 1.3a.

API Support: AMD supports DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.2.170; NVIDIA supports DirectX 12 (11_0) but has no Vulkan support.

Release Dates: AMD released on 2014-02-16, NVIDIA on 2010-09-12.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 wins in raw compute performance based on the OpenCL benchmark. Its 4893 score versus 4015 represents a 17.9% lead, and it also holds advantages in pixel rate (6.264 vs. 5.760 GPixel/s), texture rate (25.06 vs. 17.28 GTexel/s), and FP32 throughput (601.3 vs. 553.0 GFLOPS). It has double the ROPs (16 vs. 8) and more TMUs (32 vs. 24). For any workload that stresses fill rate or pure parallel arithmetic, the GTS 450 is the stronger part. The discrete memory subsystem with 57.73 GB/s of dedicated bandwidth is another advantage, as the AMD part must contend with system memory sharing.

The AMD Radeon R7 Graphics wins in API modernity. It supports Vulkan 1.2.170, which the GTS 450 does not support at all, and it has a DirectX 12 feature level of 12_0 compared to the GTS 450’s 11_0. The AMD part also has a Vulkan benchmark score of 5980, demonstrating functional capability in that API. For users running modern applications that leverage Vulkan, the AMD part is the only choice of the two. Additionally, the AMD part has a far lower TDP at 25 W versus 106 W, making it suitable for power-constrained systems where the GTS 450 would require a dedicated power supply connection and more cooling.

The AMD part also has a higher average benchmark score (4998 vs. 4893), driven by its Vulkan result, which suggests that in API-agnostic aggregate terms, the AMD part is slightly ahead. However, this is a statistical artifact of having two benchmarks versus one; the only direct comparison favors NVIDIA.

The Verdict

The choice between these two GPUs hinges entirely on the use case. For raw compute performance in OpenCL, the NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 is the clear winner, delivering 17.9% higher scores. It also leads in every fill-rate and throughput metric: pixel rate, texture rate, and FP32 GFLOPS. If the workload is a legacy OpenCL application or a game that relies on traditional rasterization throughput, the GTS 450’s dedicated memory and higher ROP/TMU counts make it the superior part.

However, the AMD Radeon R7 Graphics is the only one of the two that supports Vulkan, and it has a functional Vulkan score of 5980. For any modern application that uses Vulkan, the GTS 450 is simply not an option. The AMD part also consumes 25 W versus 106 W, making it viable in integrated systems without a discrete power connector. Its DirectX 12 feature level of 12_0 is newer than the GTS 450’s 11_0, offering better compatibility with newer titles.

The data does not support a universal winner. The GTS 450 wins the only head-to-head benchmark decisively, but the R7 Graphics wins on feature set and efficiency. The GTS 450 is for users who need maximum compute and fill rate in a discrete card, accepting its higher power draw and older API support. The R7 Graphics is for users who need modern API support, particularly Vulkan, and operate within a low-power integrated platform. Given that the AMD part is an IGP and the NVIDIA part is a discrete card, the comparison is somewhat academic; they serve different system architectures. But strictly from the benchmark data, the GTS 450 is faster in OpenCL, while the R7 Graphics is more capable in Vulkan and far more power-efficient.