GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs Radeon RX 470

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon RX 470, which comes with core speeds of 926 MHz on the GPU, and 1650 MHz on the 8192 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 2048 SPUs along with 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 RX 470		120 Watts
	Difference: 73 Watts (155%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon RX 470 should be a lot faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

Radeon RX 470		211200 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 188800 (843%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon RX 470 should be much (more or less 1272%) better at AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

Radeon RX 470		118528 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 109888 (1272%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the Radeon RX 470 is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

Radeon RX 470		29632 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		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: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory 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 better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core 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 rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.