GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce GTX 285 2GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 285 2GB, which comes with clock speeds of 648 MHz on the GPU, and 1242 MHz on the 2048 MB of GDDR3 RAM. It features 240 SPUs along with 80 Texture Address Units and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 285 2GB		204 Watts
	Difference: 157 Watts (334%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 285 2GB, in theory, should be much faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 285 2GB		158976 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 146176 (1142%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 285 2GB is a lot (approximately 500%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GTX 285 2GB		51840 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 43200 (500%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 285 2GB should be much (about 380%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, and also capable of handling higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 285 2GB		20736 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 16416 (380%)

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 maximum amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.