GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm, which has clock speeds of 576 MHz on the GPU, and 999 MHz on the 896 MB of GDDR3 RAM. It features 216 SPUs as well as 72 TAUs and 28 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
GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		171 Watts
	Difference: 124 Watts (264%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		111888 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 99088 (774%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm should be quite a bit (about 380%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		41472 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 32832 (380%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm should be quite a bit (about 273%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, and able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260 216SP 55 nm		16128 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 11808 (273%)

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 information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once 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 high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are processed per 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 better this number, 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 maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.