GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs Radeon Pro Duo

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon Pro Duo, which uses a 28 nm design. AMD has clocked the core frequency at 1000 MHz. The HBM memory works at a speed of 500 MHz on this model. It features 4096 SPUs along with 256 TAUs and 64 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
Radeon Pro Duo		350 Watts
	Difference: 303 Watts (645%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon Pro Duo is 7900% faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 overall, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon Pro Duo		1024000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 1011200 (7900%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon Pro Duo is quite a bit (about 5826%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

Radeon Pro Duo		512000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 503360 (5826%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the Radeon Pro Duo is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

Radeon Pro Duo		128000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 123680 (2863%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This 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 texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few 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.