GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTX 470

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 470, which has a clock speed of 607 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 837 MHz. It also features a 320-bit memory bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It features 448 SPUs, 56 Texture Address Units, and 40 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 470		215 Watts
	Difference: 168 Watts (357%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 470 is 498% faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 in general, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		133920 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 111520 (498%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 470 is much (approximately 293%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		33992 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 25352 (293%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 470 should be a lot (more or less 462%) better at AA than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3, and will be able to handle higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		24280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 19960 (462%)

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 within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.