GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTX 960

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 960, which uses a 28 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 1127 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a speed of 1750 MHz on this particular model. It features 1024 SPUs as well as 64 Texture Address Units and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 960		120 Watts
	Difference: 73 Watts (155%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 960, in theory, should perform much faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		112000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 89600 (400%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960 will be a lot (about 735%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		72128 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 63488 (735%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960 is much (approximately 735%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3, and also able to handle higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		36064 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 31744 (735%)

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 data (measured in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better 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 figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the 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 number of pixels the video card can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.