GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce GTX 980

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 980, which comes with clock speeds of 1126 MHz on the GPU, and 1750 MHz on the 4096 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 2048 SPUs along with 128 Texture Address Units and 64 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
GeForce GTX 980		165 Watts
	Difference: 90 Watts (120%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 980, in theory, should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GTS overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		224000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 192000 (600%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 980 should be quite a bit (about 1235%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8600 GTS. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		144128 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 133328 (1235%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 980 is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		72064 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 66664 (1235%)

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 max amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen 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 texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.