GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 vs GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB, which features core clock speeds of 550 MHz on the GPU, and 850 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 96 SPUs along with 32 TAUs and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB		70 Watts
	Difference: 23 Watts (49%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB should in theory perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB		54400 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 41600 (325%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB is quite a bit (approximately 104%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB		17600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 8960 (104%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB is superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2, but not by far. (explain)

GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 1GB		4400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		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: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units 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 rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.