GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs Radeon HD 5670

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 5670, which has a GPU core clock speed of 775 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 1000 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also features 400(80x5) Stream Processors, 20 Texture Address Units, 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 HD 5670		61 Watts
	Difference: 14 Watts (30%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon HD 5670 is 186% quicker than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 in general, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

Radeon HD 5670		64000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 41600 (186%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 5670 should be quite a bit (more or less 79%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

Radeon HD 5670		15500 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 6860 (79%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 5670 will be quite a bit (more or less 44%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3, and also should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

Radeon HD 5670		6200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1880 (44%)

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 largest amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This figure is worked out 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 graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.