GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce GTX 280

Intro

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

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

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

The GeForce GTX 280 should in theory perform much faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 280 will be much (about 457%) faster with regards to 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%) better at AA than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, and also able to handle higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (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 MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.