GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 vs Geforce GTX 770

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Geforce GTX 770, which features GPU clock speed of 1046 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1753 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 1536 SPUs, 128 Texture Address Units, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		47 Watts
Geforce GTX 770		230 Watts
	Difference: 183 Watts (389%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Geforce GTX 770 should theoretically be quite a bit better than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

Geforce GTX 770		224384 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 201984 (902%)

Texel Rate

The Geforce GTX 770 is much (more or less 1450%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3. (explain)

Geforce GTX 770		133888 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 125248 (1450%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the Geforce GTX 770 is superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3, by a large margin. (explain)

Geforce GTX 770		33472 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 29152 (675%)

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 (in units of MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the 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 amount of 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 clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.