GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce GTX 560 Ti

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 560 Ti, which comes with a GPU core clock speed of 822 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 1002 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is comprised of 384 Stream Processors, 64 Texture Address Units, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 560 Ti		170 Watts
	Difference: 123 Watts (262%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 560 Ti should in theory be much faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560 Ti		128256 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 115456 (902%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 Ti is a lot (about 509%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560 Ti		52608 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 43968 (509%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 560 Ti will be a lot (about 509%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, and also able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 560 Ti		26304 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		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 maximum amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better 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 most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many 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.