GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 vs Radeon R7 250X 2GB

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon R7 250X 2GB, which has a GPU core clock speed of 1000 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1125 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 640 Stream Processors, 40 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		47 Watts
Radeon R7 250X 2GB		95 Watts
	Difference: 48 Watts (102%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon R7 250X 2GB will be 463% quicker than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 overall, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

Radeon R7 250X 2GB		72000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 59200 (463%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R7 250X 2GB is quite a bit (approximately 363%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2. (explain)

Radeon R7 250X 2GB		40000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 31360 (363%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R7 250X 2GB will be quite a bit (about 270%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2, and also will be capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

Radeon R7 250X 2GB		16000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 11680 (270%)

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 largest amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video 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 could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.