GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 vs Radeon R9 390X 8G

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon R9 390X 8G, which has GPU core speed of 1050 MHz, and 8192 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 1500 MHz through a 512-bit bus. It also features 2816 SPUs, 176 TAUs, and 64 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		47 Watts
Radeon R9 390X 8G		275 Watts
	Difference: 228 Watts (485%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the Radeon R9 390X 8G should in theory be a lot superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 overall. (explain)

Radeon R9 390X 8G		384000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 361600 (1614%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 390X 8G is quite a bit (more or less 2039%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3. (explain)

Radeon R9 390X 8G		184800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 176160 (2039%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the Radeon R9 390X 8G is the winner, by far. (explain)

Radeon R9 390X 8G		67200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 62880 (1456%)

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 (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number 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 handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. 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 fill rate is also dependant 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.