GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce GTS 250 1GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTS 250 1GB, which comes with a core clock speed of 738 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 1100 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit bus, and uses a 65/55 nm design. It is comprised of 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 DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce GTS 250 1GB		145 Watts
	Difference: 98 Watts (209%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTS 250 1GB should in theory be much superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		70400 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 57600 (450%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB should be a lot (about 447%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		47232 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 38592 (447%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTS 250 1GB will be quite a bit (more or less 173%) more effective at AA than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, and also will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTS 250 1GB		11808 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		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 largest amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster 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 can be processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics 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 maximum number of pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs 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 is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.