GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs Radeon RX 460

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon RX 460, which features core speeds of 1090 MHz on the GPU, and 1750 MHz on the 4096 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 896 SPUs along with 56 TAUs and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
Radeon RX 460		75 Watts
	Difference: 28 Watts (60%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon RX 460, in theory, should be a lot faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 overall. (explain)

Radeon RX 460		112000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 99200 (775%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon RX 460 should be much (about 606%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

Radeon RX 460		61040 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 52400 (606%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the Radeon RX 460 is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

Radeon RX 460		17440 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 13120 (304%)

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 maximum amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses 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 higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.