GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTX 260

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 260, which has a GPU core clock speed of 576 MHz, and 896 MB of GDDR3 memory set to run at 999 MHz through a 448-bit bus. It also features 192 Stream Processors, 64 Texture Address Units, and 28 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 260		182 Watts
	Difference: 135 Watts (287%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 260 should in theory be quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260		111888 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 89488 (400%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 260 will be a lot (more or less 327%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260		36864 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 28224 (327%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 260 is superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 260		16128 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		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: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. 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 rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.