GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 vs Geforce GTX 780

Intro

Compare that to the Geforce GTX 780, which has core clock speeds of 863 MHz on the GPU, and 1502 MHz on the 3072 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 2304 SPUs along with 192 TAUs and 48 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		47 Watts
Geforce GTX 780		250 Watts
	Difference: 203 Watts (432%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Geforce GTX 780 should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 overall. (explain)

Geforce GTX 780		288384 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 265984 (1187%)

Texel Rate

The Geforce GTX 780 will be much (about 1818%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3. (explain)

Geforce GTX 780		165696 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 157056 (1818%)

Pixel Rate

The Geforce GTX 780 is a lot (about 859%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3, and also should be able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

Geforce GTX 780		41424 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 37104 (859%)

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 largest amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video 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 the video card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.