GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs GeForce GT 240 GDDR5

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5, which comes with clock speeds of 550 MHz on the GPU, and 850 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 96 SPUs as well as 32 Texture Address Units and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		47 Watts
GeForce GT 240 GDDR5		70 Watts
	Difference: 23 Watts (49%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 should perform much faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 overall. (explain)

GeForce GT 240 GDDR5		54400 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 32000 (143%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 is much (more or less 104%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GT 240 GDDR5		17600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 8960 (104%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 is superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3, but not by far. (explain)

GeForce GT 240 GDDR5		4400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 80 (2%)

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 (counted in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount 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 calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.