GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce 8800 GTX

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce 8800 GTX, which features a GPU core clock speed of 575 MHz, and 768 MB of GDDR3 memory running at 900 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also is comprised of 128 Stream Processors, 64 Texture Address Units, and 24 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce 8800 GTX		155 Watts
	Difference: 108 Watts (230%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce 8800 GTX should theoretically be quite a bit better than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		86400 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 73600 (575%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTX is much (about 326%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		36800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 28160 (326%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTX will be a lot (more or less 219%) more effective at AA than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, and also will be able to handle higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTX		13800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9480 (219%)

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 data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is worked out 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 card will be at 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 that the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs 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 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 reach the maximum fill rate.