GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce GTX 650

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 650, which comes with a core clock frequency of 1058 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1250 MHz. It also features a 128-bit bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is made up of 384 SPUs, 32 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 650		64 Watts
	Difference: 17 Watts (36%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 650 should theoretically be much superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 650		80000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 67200 (525%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 650 should be much (about 292%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GTX 650		33856 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 25216 (292%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 650 is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 650		16928 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 12608 (292%)

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 max amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of 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 in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as 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, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.