GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs Radeon HD 7950

Intro

Compare all of that to the Radeon HD 7950, which uses a 28 nm design. AMD has set the core speed at 800 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM is set to run at a speed of 1250 MHz on this model. It features 1792 SPUs along with 112 TAUs and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		47 Watts
Radeon HD 7950		200 Watts
	Difference: 153 Watts (326%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon HD 7950 should theoretically perform much faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 7950		240000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 217600 (971%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 7950 should be much (approximately 937%) better at AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

Radeon HD 7950		89600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 80960 (937%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 7950 should be quite a bit (about 493%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3, and will be able to handle higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

Radeon HD 7950		25600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 21280 (493%)

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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, 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 texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed per 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. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the clock 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 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 reach the max fill rate.