GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce GTX 570

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 570, which features GPU clock speed of 732 MHz, and 1280 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 950 MHz through a 320-bit bus. It also is comprised of 480 SPUs, 60 Texture Address Units, and 40 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
GeForce GTX 570		219 Watts
	Difference: 144 Watts (192%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 570 should theoretically be a lot superior to the GeForce 8600 GTS overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 570		152000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 120000 (375%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 570 is much (more or less 307%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GTS. (explain)

GeForce GTX 570		43920 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 33120 (307%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 570 is quite a bit (more or less 442%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce 8600 GTS, and also should be able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 570		29280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 23880 (442%)

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 largest amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total number of 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 applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.