GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce GTX 580 3GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 580 3GB, which features core speeds of 772 MHz on the GPU, and 1002 MHz on the 3072 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 512 SPUs along with 64 Texture Address Units and 48 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
GeForce GTX 580 3GB		244 Watts
	Difference: 169 Watts (225%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 580 3GB should theoretically be a lot superior to the GeForce 8600 GTS overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		192384 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 160384 (501%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 3GB should be quite a bit (approximately 357%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GTS. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		49408 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 38608 (357%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 580 3GB is superior to the GeForce 8600 GTS, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580 3GB		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 31656 (586%)

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 (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.