GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTX 780 Ti

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 780 Ti, which features a GPU core clock speed of 875 MHz, and 3072 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 1750 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also is comprised of 2880 Stream Processors, 240 TAUs, and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 780 Ti		250 Watts
	Difference: 203 Watts (432%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 780 Ti should be a lot faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 780 Ti		336000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 313600 (1400%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 780 Ti will be a lot (about 2331%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTX 780 Ti		210000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 201360 (2331%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 780 Ti is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 780 Ti		42000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 37680 (872%)

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 maximum amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. 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 many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.