GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce GTX 470

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 470, which has a core clock frequency of 607 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 837 MHz. It also makes use of a 320-bit bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It features 448 SPUs, 56 Texture Address Units, and 40 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
GeForce GTX 470		215 Watts
	Difference: 140 Watts (187%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 470 should be much faster than the GeForce 8600 GTS in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		133920 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 101920 (319%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 470 is much (approximately 215%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GTS. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		33992 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 23192 (215%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 470 is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		24280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 18880 (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 largest amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.