GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs Radeon HD 7790

Intro

Compare all of that to the Radeon HD 7790, which comes with a core clock frequency of 1000 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1500 MHz. It also uses a 128-bit memory bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It features 896 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		47 Watts
Radeon HD 7790		85 Watts
	Difference: 38 Watts (81%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 7790 will be 329% faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 in general, because of its greater data rate. (explain)

Radeon HD 7790		96000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 73600 (329%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 7790 is much (about 548%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

Radeon HD 7790		56000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 47360 (548%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 7790 should be quite a bit (approximately 270%) better at AA than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3, and will be capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

Radeon HD 7790		16000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 11680 (270%)

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 (in units of MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total 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 one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. 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 is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.