GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs Radeon R9 M295X

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon R9 M295X, which uses a 28 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 750 MHz. The GDDR5 memory works at a speed of 1375 MHz on this card. It features 2048 SPUs as well as 128 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 R9 M295X		125 Watts
	Difference: 78 Watts (166%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon R9 M295X will be 686% quicker than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 overall, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon R9 M295X		176000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 153600 (686%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 M295X is quite a bit (about 1011%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

Radeon R9 M295X		96000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 87360 (1011%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R9 M295X will be much (approximately 456%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3, and will be able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

Radeon R9 M295X		24000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 19680 (456%)

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 information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total 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 handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.