GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTS 250 512MB

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTS 250 512MB, which has a clock frequency of 738 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 1100 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 65/55 nm design. It features 128 SPUs, 64 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		47 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 512MB		145 Watts
	Difference: 98 Watts (209%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTS 250 512MB should theoretically be a lot better than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		70400 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 48000 (214%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 512MB will be much (approximately 447%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 38592 (447%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTS 250 512MB is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 512MB		11808 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 7488 (173%)

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 maximum amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the 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 maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. 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 rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.