GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTX 570

Intro

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

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 570		219 Watts
	Difference: 172 Watts (366%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 570 should theoretically be quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 570		152000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 129600 (579%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 570 is much (approximately 408%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTX 570		43920 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 35280 (408%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 570 is superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 570		29280 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 24960 (578%)

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 information (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock 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 processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output 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.