GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce GTX 460 1GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 460 1GB, which features a core clock speed of 675 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 900 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 336 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
GeForce GTX 460 1GB		160 Watts
	Difference: 85 Watts (113%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 460 1GB is 260% quicker than the GeForce 8600 GTS in general, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		115200 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 83200 (260%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 1GB will be quite a bit (about 250%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GTS. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		37800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 27000 (250%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 460 1GB should be a lot (approximately 300%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GTS, and will be capable of handling higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 460 1GB		21600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 16200 (300%)

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 information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.