GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce GTX 275

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 275, which has GPU clock speed of 633 MHz, and 896 MB of GDDR3 RAM set to run at 1134 MHz through a 448-bit bus. It also is made up of 240 Stream Processors, 80 TAUs, and 28 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 275		219 Watts
	Difference: 172 Watts (366%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 275 should be 892% faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 275		127008 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 114208 (892%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 275 should be quite a bit (approximately 486%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GTX 275		50640 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 42000 (486%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 275 is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 275		17724 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 13404 (310%)

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 information (measured in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's 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 lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.