GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs Radeon R7 250X 2GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon R7 250X 2GB, which makes use of a 28 nm design. AMD has clocked the core frequency at 1000 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a speed of 1125 MHz on this card. It features 640 SPUs along with 40 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
Radeon R7 250X 2GB		95 Watts
	Difference: 48 Watts (102%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon R7 250X 2GB should be 463% faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 overall, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon R7 250X 2GB		72000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 59200 (463%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R7 250X 2GB is quite a bit (more or less 363%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

Radeon R7 250X 2GB		40000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 31360 (363%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the Radeon R7 250X 2GB is superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, by far. (explain)

Radeon R7 250X 2GB		16000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 11680 (270%)

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 largest amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.