GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 vs GeForce GTX 560

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 560, which has a core clock speed of 810 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1001 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 336 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 560		150 Watts
	Difference: 103 Watts (219%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 560 should theoretically perform a lot faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		128128 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 115328 (901%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 will be quite a bit (approximately 425%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		45360 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 36720 (425%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 should be much (approximately 500%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2, and will be capable of handling higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		25920 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		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 MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

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