GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce GTX 280

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 280, which comes with a clock speed of 602 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 1107 MHz. It also makes use of a 512-bit bus, and uses a 65 nm design. It is comprised of 240 SPUs, 80 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 280		236 Watts
	Difference: 189 Watts (402%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 280 should be 1007% quicker than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		141696 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 128896 (1007%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 280 is a lot (approximately 457%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		48160 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 39520 (457%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 280 is a lot (about 346%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, and also able to handle higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 280		19264 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 14944 (346%)

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 (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the better 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 can be applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. 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, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.