GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs Radeon R7 250

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon R7 250, which features a GPU core clock speed of 1000 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1150 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 384 Stream Processors, 24 TAUs, and 8 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 R7 250		65 Watts
	Difference: 18 Watts (38%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon R7 250, in theory, should be much faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 overall. (explain)

Radeon R7 250		73600 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 51200 (229%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R7 250 should be quite a bit (about 178%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

Radeon R7 250		24000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 15360 (178%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R7 250 will be quite a bit (approximately 85%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3, and also should be able to handle higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

Radeon R7 250		8000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3680 (85%)

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: Bandwidth is the max amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This figure 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 a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.