GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTX 470

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 470, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 607 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a speed of 837 MHz on this card. It features 448 SPUs as well as 56 Texture Address Units and 40 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 470		215 Watts
	Difference: 168 Watts (357%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 470 should be 498% faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 in general, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		133920 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 111520 (498%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 470 should be quite a bit (approximately 293%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		33992 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 25352 (293%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 470 will be quite a bit (approximately 462%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3, and will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 470		24280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB 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: Bandwidth is the largest amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, 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 are applied in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.