GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 vs GeForce GTX 650 Ti

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 650 Ti, which uses a 28 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 928 MHz. The GDDR5 memory is set to run at a frequency of 1350 MHz on this particular model. It features 768 SPUs along with 64 Texture Address Units and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 650 Ti		110 Watts
	Difference: 63 Watts (134%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 650 Ti should be a lot faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 650 Ti		86400 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 73600 (575%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 650 Ti is quite a bit (about 587%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GTX 650 Ti		59392 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 50752 (587%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 650 Ti is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 650 Ti		14848 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 10528 (244%)

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 MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster 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 processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.