GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTX 560

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 560, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 810 MHz. The GDDR5 memory is set to run at a speed of 1001 MHz on this model. It features 336 SPUs along with 56 Texture Address Units and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 560		150 Watts
	Difference: 103 Watts (219%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 560 should theoretically be much better than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		128128 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 105728 (472%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 should be a lot (approximately 425%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		45360 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 36720 (425%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 560 is superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		25920 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 21600 (500%)

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 max amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, 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 applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core 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 applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.