GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB, which comes with a GPU core clock speed of 550 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 850 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is comprised of 96 Stream Processors, 32 Texture Address Units, and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB		70 Watts
	Difference: 23 Watts (49%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB should perform a lot faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 overall. (explain)

GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB		54400 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 41600 (325%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB is quite a bit (about 104%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB		17600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 8960 (104%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB is a better choice, not by a very large margin though. (explain)

GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB		4400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 80 (2%)

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 largest amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher 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 can be applied per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called 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 memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.