GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs Geforce GTX 670

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Geforce GTX 670, which has GPU core speed of 915 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1500 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is comprised of 1344 SPUs, 112 Texture Address Units, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		47 Watts
Geforce GTX 670		170 Watts
	Difference: 123 Watts (262%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Geforce GTX 670 should be 757% quicker than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 overall, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

Geforce GTX 670		192000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 169600 (757%)

Texel Rate

The Geforce GTX 670 will be much (approximately 1086%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

Geforce GTX 670		102480 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 93840 (1086%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the Geforce GTX 670 is superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3, by a large margin. (explain)

Geforce GTX 670		29280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 24960 (578%)

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 information (in units of MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

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