GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTX 560 Ti

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 560 Ti, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 822 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a speed of 1002 MHz on this particular card. It features 384 SPUs along with 64 Texture Address Units and 32 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 560 Ti		170 Watts
	Difference: 123 Watts (262%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 560 Ti is 473% quicker than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 overall, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560 Ti		128256 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 105856 (473%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 Ti should be a lot (more or less 509%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560 Ti		52608 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 43968 (509%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 560 Ti is superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560 Ti		26304 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 21984 (509%)

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 data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

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