GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs Radeon RX 590

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon RX 590, which has a core clock speed of 1469 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 2000 MHz. It also makes use of a 256-bit bus, and makes use of a 12 nm design. It is comprised of 2304 SPUs, 144 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
Radeon RX 590		175 Watts
	Difference: 128 Watts (272%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon RX 590 is 1948% quicker than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon RX 590		262144 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 249344 (1948%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon RX 590 is much (approximately 2348%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

Radeon RX 590		211536 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 202896 (2348%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon RX 590 will be a lot (about 988%) better at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, and should be able to handle higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

Radeon RX 590		47008 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 42688 (988%)

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 MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.