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GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs Geforce GTX 690

Intro

The GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 features a core clock frequency of 540 MHz and a DDR2 memory frequency of 400 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit memory bus, and uses a 80 nm design. It features 32 SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 8 Raster Operation Units.

Compare all of that to the Geforce GTX 690, which makes use of a 28 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 915 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM runs at a frequency of 1502 MHz on this particular card. It features 1536 SPUs as well as 128 TAUs and 32 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 47 Watts
Geforce GTX 690 300 Watts
Difference: 253 Watts (538%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Geforce GTX 690 should theoretically be much faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

Geforce GTX 690 384512 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 12800 MB/sec
Difference: 371712 (2904%)

Texel Rate

The Geforce GTX 690 is quite a bit (more or less 2611%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

Geforce GTX 690 234240 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 8640 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 225600 (2611%)

Pixel Rate

The Geforce GTX 690 should be quite a bit (more or less 1256%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, and should be able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

Geforce GTX 690 58560 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 4320 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 54240 (1256%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

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GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2

Amazon.com

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Geforce GTX 690

Amazon.com

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Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

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Model GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 Geforce GTX 690
Manufacturer nVidia nVidia
Year April 2007 April 2012
Code Name G84 GK104
Memory 512 MB 2048 MB (x2)
Core Speed 540 MHz 915 MHz (x2)
Memory Speed 800 MHz 6008 MHz (x2)
Power (Max TDP) 47 watts 300 watts
Bandwidth 12800 MB/sec 384512 MB/sec
Texel Rate 8640 Mtexels/sec 234240 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 4320 Mpixels/sec 58560 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 32 1536 (x2)
Texture Mapping Units 16 128 (x2)
Render Output Units 8 32 (x2)
Bus Type DDR2 GDDR5
Bus Width 128-bit 256-bit (x2)
Fab Process 80 nm 28 nm
Transistors 289 million 3540 million
Bus PCIe x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 11.0
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 4.2

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the max amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR memory, the result 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 AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. 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 is also dependant on lots of 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.

Display Prices

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GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Geforce GTX 690

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

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