GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTX 950

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 950, which uses a 28 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 1024 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a speed of 1652 MHz on this model. It features 768 SPUs as well as 48 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 950		90 Watts
	Difference: 43 Watts (91%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 950 should be 372% faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 overall, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 950		105728 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 83328 (372%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 950 will be a lot (approximately 469%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTX 950		49152 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 40512 (469%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 950 is superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 950		32768 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 28448 (659%)

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 largest amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's 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 fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.