GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 vs Radeon R7 370 2G

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon R7 370 2G, which uses a 28 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 975 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a speed of 1400 MHz on this particular model. It features 1024 SPUs as well as 64 Texture Address Units and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		47 Watts
Radeon R7 370 2G		110 Watts
	Difference: 63 Watts (134%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the Radeon R7 370 2G should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

Radeon R7 370 2G		179200 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 156800 (700%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R7 370 2G is much (about 622%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3. (explain)

Radeon R7 370 2G		62400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 53760 (622%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R7 370 2G should be a lot (about 622%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3, and should be capable of handling higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

Radeon R7 370 2G		31200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 26880 (622%)

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 information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.