GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 vs Radeon HD 6450 (OEM) 1GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 6450 (OEM) 1GB, which has a GPU core clock speed of 750 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 900 MHz through a 64-bit bus. It also is comprised of 160 SPUs, 8 TAUs, and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 6450 (OEM) 1GB		31 Watts
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		47 Watts
	Difference: 16 Watts (52%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 6450 (OEM) 1GB is 125% quicker than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 in general, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon HD 6450 (OEM) 1GB		28800 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 16000 (125%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 is quite a bit (more or less 44%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 6450 (OEM) 1GB. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 6450 (OEM) 1GB		6000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2640 (44%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 is much (about 44%) better at FSAA than the Radeon HD 6450 (OEM) 1GB, and also will be capable of handling higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 6450 (OEM) 1GB		3000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1320 (44%)

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 data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock 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 rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.