GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTX 570

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 570, which features GPU clock speed of 732 MHz, and 1280 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 950 MHz through a 320-bit bus. It also is made up of 480 Stream Processors, 60 Texture Address Units, and 40 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 570		219 Watts
	Difference: 172 Watts (366%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 570 should in theory be a lot superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 570		152000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 129600 (579%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 570 should be much (approximately 408%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTX 570		43920 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 35280 (408%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 570 is superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 570		29280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 24960 (578%)

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 max amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 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, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can 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 ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.