GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs Geforce GTX 770

Intro

Compare those specs to the Geforce GTX 770, which features a GPU core clock speed of 1046 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 1753 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 1536 SPUs, 128 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
Geforce GTX 770		230 Watts
	Difference: 183 Watts (389%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Geforce GTX 770 should in theory perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

Geforce GTX 770		224384 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 211584 (1653%)

Texel Rate

The Geforce GTX 770 will be quite a bit (approximately 1450%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

Geforce GTX 770		133888 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 125248 (1450%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the Geforce GTX 770 is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

Geforce GTX 770		33472 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 29152 (675%)

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 data (measured in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. 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, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.