GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 vs Radeon HD 7790

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 7790, which comes with a core clock frequency of 1000 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1500 MHz. It also features a 128-bit bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 896 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		47 Watts
Radeon HD 7790		85 Watts
	Difference: 38 Watts (81%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon HD 7790 should be 329% quicker than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 in general, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

Radeon HD 7790		96000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 73600 (329%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 7790 is quite a bit (approximately 548%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3. (explain)

Radeon HD 7790		56000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 47360 (548%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 7790 is much (more or less 270%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3, and will be able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

Radeon HD 7790		16000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 11680 (270%)

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 max amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, 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 figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.