GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 vs Radeon R7 370 4G

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon R7 370 4G, which comes with core speeds of 975 MHz on the GPU, and 1400 MHz on the 4096 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 1024 SPUs as well as 64 Texture Address Units and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		47 Watts
Radeon R7 370 4G		110 Watts
	Difference: 63 Watts (134%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Radeon R7 370 4G should in theory be a lot better than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

Radeon R7 370 4G		179200 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 166400 (1300%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R7 370 4G will be much (more or less 622%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2. (explain)

Radeon R7 370 4G		62400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 53760 (622%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R7 370 4G should be quite a bit (about 622%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2, and also will be able to handle higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

Radeon R7 370 4G		31200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		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 maximum amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better 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 by the core clock 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 applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. 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 many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.