GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce GTX 660 Ti

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 660 Ti, which features a core clock frequency of 915 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1500 MHz. It also uses a 192-bit bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is made up of 1344 SPUs, 112 TAUs, and 24 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
GeForce GTX 660 Ti		150 Watts
	Difference: 75 Watts (100%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 660 Ti should theoretically be much better than the GeForce 8600 GTS in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660 Ti		144000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 112000 (350%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 Ti should be a lot (about 849%) better at AF than the GeForce 8600 GTS. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660 Ti		102480 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 91680 (849%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 660 Ti is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660 Ti		21960 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 16560 (307%)

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 (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If 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 high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, 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 most pixels the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as 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, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.