GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTX 580

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 580, which comes with a core clock speed of 772 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1002 MHz. It also makes use of a 384-bit bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 512 SPUs, 64 TAUs, and 48 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 580		244 Watts
	Difference: 197 Watts (419%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 580 should be much faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		192384 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 169984 (759%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 is quite a bit (about 472%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		49408 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 40768 (472%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 580 is much (approximately 758%) better at AA than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3, and also will be able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 580		37056 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 32736 (758%)

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 transferred over the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the 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 figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better 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 maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate 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 outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.