GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs Radeon RX 7900 XT

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon RX 7900 XT, which features core speeds of 1500 MHz on the GPU, and 2500 MHz on the 20480 MB of GDDR6 memory. It features 5376 SPUs along with 336 Texture Address Units and 192 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 7900 XT		300 Watts
	Difference: 253 Watts (538%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the Radeon RX 7900 XT should in theory be much superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 overall. (explain)

Radeon RX 7900 XT		819200 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 806400 (6300%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon RX 7900 XT is a lot (more or less 5733%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

Radeon RX 7900 XT		504000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 495360 (5733%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the Radeon RX 7900 XT is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

Radeon RX 7900 XT		288000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 283680 (6567%)

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 (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card 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 a second.

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