GeForce 8600 GTS vs Geforce GTX 680

Intro

Compare that to the Geforce GTX 680, which features a clock speed of 1006 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1502 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 1536 SPUs, 128 Texture Address Units, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
Geforce GTX 680		195 Watts
	Difference: 120 Watts (160%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the Geforce GTX 680 should perform a lot faster than the GeForce 8600 GTS overall. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		192256 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 160256 (501%)

Texel Rate

The Geforce GTX 680 will be quite a bit (approximately 1092%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GTS. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		128768 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 117968 (1092%)

Pixel Rate

The Geforce GTX 680 will be quite a bit (about 496%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce 8600 GTS, and also should be capable of handling higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		32192 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 26792 (496%)

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 max amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the better 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the 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 the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines 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 fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.