GeForce 8600 GS (OEM) vs GeForce GTX 470

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 470, which comes with clock speeds of 607 MHz on the GPU, and 837 MHz on the 1280 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 448 SPUs as well as 56 TAUs and 40 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GS (OEM)		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 470		215 Watts
	Difference: 168 Watts (357%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 470 is 946% faster than the GeForce 8600 GS (OEM) in general, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		133920 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GS (OEM)		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 121120 (946%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 470 will be quite a bit (approximately 293%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GS (OEM). (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		33992 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GS (OEM)		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 25352 (293%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 470 is a lot (approximately 462%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce 8600 GS (OEM), and capable of handling higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		24280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GS (OEM)		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 maximum amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it should 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 anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This number is worked out 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 graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

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