GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce GTX 950

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 950, which features a core clock speed of 1024 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1652 MHz. It also uses a 128-bit memory bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 768 SPUs, 48 TAUs, and 32 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 950		90 Watts
	Difference: 43 Watts (91%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTX 950 should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 950		105728 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 92928 (726%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 950 will be a lot (approximately 469%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GTX 950		49152 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 40512 (469%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 950 should be a lot (approximately 659%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, and should be able to handle higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 950		32768 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 28448 (659%)

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 data (counted in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock 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 per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core 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 many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.