GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs Geforce GTX 670

Intro

Compare all of that to the Geforce GTX 670, which makes use of a 28 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 915 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a speed of 1500 MHz on this model. It features 1344 SPUs along with 112 Texture Address Units and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
Geforce GTX 670		170 Watts
	Difference: 123 Watts (262%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Geforce GTX 670 should in theory be a lot superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 overall. (explain)

Geforce GTX 670		192000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 179200 (1400%)

Texel Rate

The Geforce GTX 670 will be much (approximately 1086%) better at AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

Geforce GTX 670		102480 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 93840 (1086%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the Geforce GTX 670 is the winner, by far. (explain)

Geforce GTX 670		29280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB 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 information (measured in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip 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 amount of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.