GeForce 8600 GTS vs Radeon R7 240

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon R7 240, which has a clock speed of 730 MHz and a DDR3 memory speed of 900 MHz. It also features a 128-bit bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 320 SPUs, 20 TAUs, and 8 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon R7 240		30 Watts
GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
	Difference: 45 Watts (150%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce 8600 GTS should in theory be just a bit superior to the Radeon R7 240 in general. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
Radeon R7 240		28800 MB/sec
	Difference: 3200 (11%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R7 240 is much (more or less 35%) better at AF than the GeForce 8600 GTS. (explain)

Radeon R7 240		14600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 3800 (35%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon R7 240 will be a bit (more or less 8%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GTS, and able to handle higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

Radeon R7 240		5840 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 440 (8%)

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 max amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster 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 texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output 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 get to the maximum fill rate.