GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 vs Geforce GTX 670

Intro

Compare all that to the Geforce GTX 670, which features a clock speed of 915 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1500 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is made up of 1344 SPUs, 112 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		47 Watts
Geforce GTX 670		170 Watts
	Difference: 123 Watts (262%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Geforce GTX 670 is 757% quicker than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 in general, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

Geforce GTX 670		192000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 169600 (757%)

Texel Rate

The Geforce GTX 670 should be quite a bit (about 1086%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3. (explain)

Geforce GTX 670		102480 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 93840 (1086%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the Geforce GTX 670 is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

Geforce GTX 670		29280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB 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 maximum amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed 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 better the texel rate, 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 most pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of colour 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 also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.