GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTX Titan

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX Titan, which comes with GPU core speed of 837 MHz, and 6144 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 1502 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also is comprised of 2688 SPUs, 224 TAUs, and 48 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		47 Watts
GeForce GTX Titan		250 Watts
	Difference: 203 Watts (432%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX Titan should theoretically be much better than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX Titan		288384 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 265984 (1187%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX Titan should be a lot (more or less 2070%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTX Titan		187488 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 178848 (2070%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX Titan is quite a bit (about 830%) better at AA than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3, and also capable of handling higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX Titan		40176 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 35856 (830%)

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 information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, 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 are applied in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the 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 the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs 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, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.