GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs Radeon RX 470 4GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon RX 470 4GB, which makes use of a 14 nm design. AMD has set the core speed at 926 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM is set to run at a speed of 1650 MHz on this card. It features 2048 SPUs along with 128 TAUs and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		47 Watts
Radeon RX 470 4GB		120 Watts
	Difference: 73 Watts (155%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the Radeon RX 470 4GB should perform a lot faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

Radeon RX 470 4GB		211200 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 188800 (843%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon RX 470 4GB will be quite a bit (more or less 1272%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

Radeon RX 470 4GB		118528 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 109888 (1272%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon RX 470 4GB will be a lot (approximately 586%) better at AA than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3, and also capable of handling higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

Radeon RX 470 4GB		29632 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 25312 (586%)

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 max amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at 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 that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few 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.