GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs Geforce GTX 760

Intro

Compare those specs to the Geforce GTX 760, which comes with GPU clock speed of 980 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1502 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is comprised of 1152 Stream Processors, 96 Texture Address Units, 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 760		170 Watts
	Difference: 123 Watts (262%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the Geforce GTX 760 should in theory be much superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 overall. (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 much (approximately 989%) better at texture filtering 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 using a high screen resolution 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: Bandwidth is the largest amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core 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 fill rate also depends 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.