GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce GTX 460 SE

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 460 SE, which has clock speeds of 650 MHz on the GPU, and 850 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 288 SPUs as well as 48 TAUs and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 SE		150 Watts
	Difference: 103 Watts (219%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 460 SE should theoretically be quite a bit superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		108800 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 96000 (750%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 SE should be a lot (more or less 261%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		31200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 22560 (261%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 SE is quite a bit (about 381%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, and also capable of handling higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		20800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 16480 (381%)

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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can 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 Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.