GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce GTX 460

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 460, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 675 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a frequency of 900 MHz on this particular model. It features 336 SPUs as well as 56 Texture Address Units and 24 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
GeForce GTX 460		150 Watts
	Difference: 75 Watts (100%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 460 should be 170% faster than the GeForce 8600 GTS in general, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		86400 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 54400 (170%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 should be a lot (more or less 250%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8600 GTS. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		37800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 27000 (250%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 will be much (more or less 200%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GTS, and also capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460		16200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 10800 (200%)

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 information (measured in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock 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 processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.