GeForce 8600 GTS vs Radeon R9 M280X

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon R9 M280X, which features GPU clock speed of 900 MHz, and 4096 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1375 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is comprised of 896 Stream Processors, 56 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Both cards have the same power consumption.

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon R9 M280X should be a lot faster than the GeForce 8600 GTS in general. (explain)

Radeon R9 M280X		88000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 56000 (175%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 M280X should be quite a bit (approximately 367%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 8600 GTS. (explain)

Radeon R9 M280X		50400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 39600 (367%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the Radeon R9 M280X is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

Radeon R9 M280X		14400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9000 (167%)

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 data (counted in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 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 AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the 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 most pixels the video card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). 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 maximum fill rate.