GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 vs GeForce GTX Titan

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX Titan, which comes with a core clock speed of 837 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1502 MHz. It also features a 384-bit memory bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is made up of 2688 SPUs, 224 Texture Address Units, and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce GTX Titan		250 Watts
	Difference: 203 Watts (432%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX Titan should be 2153% quicker than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 overall, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX Titan		288384 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 275584 (2153%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX Titan should be a lot (approximately 2070%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GTX Titan		187488 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 178848 (2070%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX Titan is a lot (more or less 830%) more effective at AA than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2, and able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX Titan		40176 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		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: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core 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.