GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs Radeon R7 260X

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon R7 260X, which has a clock speed of 1100 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1625 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 896 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		47 Watts
Radeon R7 260X		115 Watts
	Difference: 68 Watts (145%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon R7 260X should perform a lot faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

Radeon R7 260X		104000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 81600 (364%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R7 260X should be a lot (approximately 613%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

Radeon R7 260X		61600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 52960 (613%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R7 260X should be quite a bit (approximately 307%) better at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3, and capable of handling higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

Radeon R7 260X		17600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 13280 (307%)

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 (counted in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This 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 video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.