GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs Radeon HD 4790

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 4790, which features a core clock frequency of 600 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 800 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and uses a 55 nm design. It features 640(128x5) SPUs, 32 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 4790 should perform much faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 4790		102400 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 89600 (700%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4790 will be much (more or less 122%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

Radeon HD 4790		19200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 10560 (122%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 4790 will be a lot (more or less 122%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, and also capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

Radeon HD 4790		9600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5280 (122%)

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 maximum amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to its 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 clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.