GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce GTX 560

Intro

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

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 560		150 Watts
	Difference: 103 Watts (219%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 560, in theory, should perform much faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		128128 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 115328 (901%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 should be a lot (about 425%) better at AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		45360 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 36720 (425%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 560 is superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560		25920 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB 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: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. 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 of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.