GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 vs Radeon R9 M375

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon R9 M375, which comes with a core clock speed of 1015 MHz and a DDR3 memory speed of 1100 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is made up of 640 SPUs, 40 Texture Address Units, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon R9 M375 should perform a lot faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 overall. (explain)

Radeon R9 M375		35200 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 12800 (57%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 M375 is much (approximately 370%) better at AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3. (explain)

Radeon R9 M375		40600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 31960 (370%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 M375 will be a lot (more or less 276%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3, and also should be able to handle higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon R9 M375		16240 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 11920 (276%)

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 maximum amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the 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 texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock 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 lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.