GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce GT 450 (OEM)

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GT 450 (OEM), which has core clock speeds of 790 MHz on the GPU, and 1000 MHz on the 1536 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 144 SPUs as well as 24 Texture Address Units and 24 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce GT 450 (OEM)		106 Watts
	Difference: 59 Watts (126%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GT 450 (OEM) should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 450 (OEM)		96000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 83200 (650%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 450 (OEM) is quite a bit (approximately 119%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GT 450 (OEM)		18960 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 10320 (119%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 450 (OEM) should be a lot (about 339%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, and also should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GT 450 (OEM)		18960 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 14640 (339%)

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 max amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, 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 that the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines 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 rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.