GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 vs GeForce GTX 480

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 480, which comes with a core clock frequency of 700 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 924 MHz. It also uses a 384-bit bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It features 480 SPUs, 60 Texture Address Units, and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 203 Watts (432%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 480 is 1286% faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 overall, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 164608 (1286%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 will be quite a bit (approximately 386%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 33360 (386%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 480 is a lot (approximately 678%) better at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2, and will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 29280 (678%)

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 max amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the 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 ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock 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 processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out 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 filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.