GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 vs GeForce GTX 465

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 465, which has GPU clock speed of 607 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 802 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 352 SPUs, 44 Texture Address Units, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 465		200 Watts
	Difference: 153 Watts (326%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 465 should in theory be quite a bit better than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 465		102592 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 89792 (702%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 465 will be a lot (more or less 209%) better at AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GTX 465		26708 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 18068 (209%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 465 is much (about 350%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2, and capable of handling higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 465		19424 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		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: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total 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 texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.