GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTX 465

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 465, which comes with clock speeds of 607 MHz on the GPU, and 802 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 352 SPUs along with 44 TAUs and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 465		200 Watts
	Difference: 153 Watts (326%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 465 should be 358% quicker than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 in general, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 465		102592 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 80192 (358%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 465 is quite a bit (approximately 209%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTX 465		26708 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 18068 (209%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 465 will be a lot (about 350%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3, and also able to handle higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 465		19424 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 15104 (350%)

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 (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

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