GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs Radeon R7 370 4G

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon R7 370 4G, which features core speeds of 975 MHz on the GPU, and 1400 MHz on the 4096 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 1024 SPUs as well as 64 TAUs and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		47 Watts
Radeon R7 370 4G		110 Watts
	Difference: 63 Watts (134%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the Radeon R7 370 4G should in theory be a lot superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

Radeon R7 370 4G		179200 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 156800 (700%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R7 370 4G will be a lot (about 622%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

Radeon R7 370 4G		62400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 53760 (622%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the Radeon R7 370 4G is superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3, by far. (explain)

Radeon R7 370 4G		31200 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 26880 (622%)

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 largest amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the 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 number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. 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 output rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.