GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 vs Radeon HD 7870 XT

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 7870 XT, which comes with a core clock speed of 925 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1500 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It is made up of 1536 SPUs, 96 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		47 Watts
Radeon HD 7870 XT		185 Watts
	Difference: 138 Watts (294%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 7870 XT should perform much faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 7870 XT		192000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 169600 (757%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 7870 XT will be quite a bit (more or less 928%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3. (explain)

Radeon HD 7870 XT		88800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 80160 (928%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 7870 XT will be much (about 585%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3, and should be able to handle higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

Radeon HD 7870 XT		29600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 25280 (585%)

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 (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR 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 by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second.

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