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GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 vs Radeon HD 7790

Intro

The GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 has a clock frequency of 540 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 700 MHz. It also uses a 128-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 80 nm design. It is made up of 32 SPUs, 16 Texture Address Units, and 8 ROPs.

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 7790, which makes use of a 28 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 1000 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM works at a speed of 1500 MHz on this particular card. It features 896 SPUs along with 56 Texture Address Units and 16 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 47 Watts
Radeon HD 7790 85 Watts
Difference: 38 Watts (81%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 7790 should be a lot faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 7790 96000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 22400 MB/sec
Difference: 73600 (329%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 7790 should be a lot (approximately 548%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3. (explain)

Radeon HD 7790 56000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 8640 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 47360 (548%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the Radeon HD 7790 is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

Radeon HD 7790 16000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 4320 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 11680 (270%)

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

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GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3

Amazon.com

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Radeon HD 7790

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 256MB GDDR3 Radeon HD 7790
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year April 2007 March 2013
Code Name G84 Bonaire XT
Memory 256 MB 1024 MB
Core Speed 540 MHz 1000 MHz
Memory Speed 1400 MHz 6000 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 47 watts 85 watts
Bandwidth 22400 MB/sec 96000 MB/sec
Texel Rate 8640 Mtexels/sec 56000 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 4320 Mpixels/sec 16000 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 32 896
Texture Mapping Units 16 56
Render Output Units 8 16
Bus Type GDDR3 GDDR5
Bus Width 128-bit 128-bit
Fab Process 80 nm 28 nm
Transistors 289 million 2080 million
Bus PCIe x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 11.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 4.3

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus 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 card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 7790

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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