GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs Radeon RX 470 4GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon RX 470 4GB, which uses a 14 nm design. AMD has clocked the core frequency at 926 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a frequency of 1650 MHz on this model. It features 2048 SPUs along with 128 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
Radeon RX 470 4GB		120 Watts
	Difference: 73 Watts (155%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the Radeon RX 470 4GB should in theory be quite a bit better than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 overall. (explain)

Radeon RX 470 4GB		211200 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 198400 (1550%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon RX 470 4GB should be much (about 1272%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

Radeon RX 470 4GB		118528 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 109888 (1272%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon RX 470 4GB should be much (approximately 586%) better at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, and also should be able to handle higher resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon RX 470 4GB		29632 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 25312 (586%)

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 information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 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, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total 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 applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.