GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 vs Radeon HD 6950 2GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 6950 2GB, which has a clock speed of 800 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1250 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 1408 SPUs, 88 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		47 Watts
Radeon HD 6950 2GB		200 Watts
	Difference: 153 Watts (326%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon HD 6950 2GB will be 614% faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 overall, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950 2GB		160000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 137600 (614%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 6950 2GB will be quite a bit (about 715%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950 2GB		70400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 61760 (715%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 6950 2GB should be quite a bit (about 493%) better at FSAA than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3, and should be able to handle higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

Radeon HD 6950 2GB		25600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 21280 (493%)

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 largest amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the 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 most pixels the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. 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 rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.