GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs Geforce GTX 760

Intro

Compare that to the Geforce GTX 760, which uses a 28 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 980 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a speed of 1502 MHz on this particular model. It features 1152 SPUs as well as 96 TAUs and 32 Rasterization Operator 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 760		170 Watts
	Difference: 123 Watts (262%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the Geforce GTX 760 should in theory be much better than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

Geforce GTX 760		192256 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 179456 (1402%)

Texel Rate

The Geforce GTX 760 will be a lot (more or less 989%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

Geforce GTX 760		94080 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 85440 (989%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the Geforce GTX 760 is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

Geforce GTX 760		31360 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 27040 (626%)

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 (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR RAM, it must 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 per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core 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 applied in one second.

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