GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs Geforce GTX 680

Intro

Compare all that to the Geforce GTX 680, which comes with GPU core speed of 1006 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 1502 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is comprised of 1536 Stream Processors, 128 Texture Address Units, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
Geforce GTX 680		195 Watts
	Difference: 148 Watts (315%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Geforce GTX 680 should theoretically be a lot better than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		192256 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 179456 (1402%)

Texel Rate

The Geforce GTX 680 will be quite a bit (about 1390%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		128768 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 120128 (1390%)

Pixel Rate

The Geforce GTX 680 will be much (about 645%) better at AA than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, and will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		32192 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 27872 (645%)

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 max amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.