GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce GTS 150

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTS 150, which features a clock speed of 740 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 500 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is made up of 128 SPUs, 64 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
GeForce GTS 150		141 Watts
	Difference: 66 Watts (88%)

Memory Bandwidth

Both cards have exactly the same memory bandwidth, so in theory they should have identical performance. (explain)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 150 is much (more or less 339%) better at AF than the GeForce 8600 GTS. (explain)

GeForce GTS 150		47360 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 36560 (339%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTS 150 is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTS 150		11840 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 6440 (119%)

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 max amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video 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 the video card could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka 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, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.