GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce GTX 460 SE

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 460 SE, which features GPU clock speed of 650 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 850 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 288 SPUs, 48 Texture Address Units, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 SE		150 Watts
	Difference: 75 Watts (100%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 460 SE, in theory, should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GTS overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		108800 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 76800 (240%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 SE should be a lot (more or less 189%) better at AF than the GeForce 8600 GTS. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		31200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 20400 (189%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 460 SE is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 SE		20800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 15400 (285%)

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 information (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.