GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 vs Geforce GTX 780

Intro

Compare all that to the Geforce GTX 780, which comes with a clock frequency of 863 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1502 MHz. It also makes use of a 384-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 2304 SPUs, 192 Texture Address Units, and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		47 Watts
Geforce GTX 780		250 Watts
	Difference: 203 Watts (432%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Geforce GTX 780 should in theory be much superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 overall. (explain)

Geforce GTX 780		288384 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 265984 (1187%)

Texel Rate

The Geforce GTX 780 will be much (more or less 1818%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3. (explain)

Geforce GTX 780		165696 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 157056 (1818%)

Pixel Rate

The Geforce GTX 780 is much (approximately 859%) better at AA than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3, and also capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

Geforce GTX 780		41424 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 37104 (859%)

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 (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, 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 can be processed in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.