GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs Radeon RX 470

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon RX 470, which features GPU core speed of 926 MHz, and 8192 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1650 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 2048 SPUs, 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		120 Watts
	Difference: 73 Watts (155%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon RX 470 will be 843% faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 overall, because of its greater data rate. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The Radeon RX 470 should be much (more or less 1272%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

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

Pixel Rate

The Radeon RX 470 is quite a bit (about 586%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3, and also should be able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

Radeon RX 470		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: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number 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 drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output 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 maximum fill rate.