GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 vs GeForce GTX 570

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 570, which comes with a clock speed of 732 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 950 MHz. It also features a 320-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It features 480 SPUs, 60 TAUs, and 40 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 570		219 Watts
	Difference: 172 Watts (366%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 570 should theoretically be much better than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 570		152000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 139200 (1088%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 570 will be quite a bit (approximately 408%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GTX 570		43920 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 35280 (408%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 570 is much (about 578%) better at AA than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2, and also capable of handling higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 570		29280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		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: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. 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 rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.