GeForce 8600 GS (OEM) vs GeForce GTX 460 2GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 460 2GB, which comes with GPU core speed of 675 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 900 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 336 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GS (OEM)		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 2GB		160 Watts
	Difference: 113 Watts (240%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 460 2GB should be a lot faster than the GeForce 8600 GS (OEM) in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		115200 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GS (OEM)		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 102400 (800%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 2GB will be quite a bit (about 338%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GS (OEM). (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GS (OEM)		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 29160 (338%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 2GB will be much (approximately 400%) better at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GS (OEM), and also will be capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 2GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GS (OEM)		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 17280 (400%)

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 data (measured in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the card's 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 also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.