GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce GTX 780 Ti

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 780 Ti, which has a GPU core clock speed of 875 MHz, and 3072 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 1750 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also is comprised of 2880 SPUs, 240 Texture Address Units, and 48 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 780 Ti		250 Watts
	Difference: 203 Watts (432%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 780 Ti should in theory be quite a bit better than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 780 Ti		336000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 323200 (2525%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 780 Ti will be much (more or less 2331%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GTX 780 Ti		210000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 201360 (2331%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 780 Ti is the winner, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 780 Ti		42000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 37680 (872%)

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 information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better 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 are processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at 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 chip could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out 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 outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.