GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTX 660 Ti

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 660 Ti, which comes with a GPU core clock speed of 915 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1500 MHz through a 192-bit bus. It also features 1344 Stream Processors, 112 TAUs, and 24 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 660 Ti		150 Watts
	Difference: 103 Watts (219%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 660 Ti should theoretically be a lot better than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660 Ti		144000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 121600 (543%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 Ti should be quite a bit (approximately 1086%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660 Ti		102480 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 93840 (1086%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 660 Ti is much (approximately 408%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3, and should be able to handle higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 660 Ti		21960 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 17640 (408%)

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 MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at handling 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 can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units 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 is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.