GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 vs GeForce GTS 450 1GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTS 450 1GB, which comes with a GPU core clock speed of 783 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 902 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 192 Stream Processors, 32 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		106 Watts
	Difference: 59 Watts (126%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTS 450 1GB should in theory perform much faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		57728 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 44928 (351%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 450 1GB will be quite a bit (more or less 190%) better at AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		25056 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 16416 (190%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTS 450 1GB will be a lot (about 190%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2, and will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		12528 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 8208 (190%)

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 largest amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better 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 figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs 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 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 max fill rate.