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GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs Radeon HD 7870 XT

Intro

The GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 makes use of a 80 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 540 MHz. The DDR2 RAM runs at a speed of 400 MHz on this specific card. It features 32 SPUs along with 16 TAUs and 8 ROPs.

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 7870 XT, which uses a 28 nm design. AMD has clocked the core frequency at 925 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM runs at a frequency of 1500 MHz on this specific card. It features 1536 SPUs along with 96 Texture Address Units and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 47 Watts
Radeon HD 7870 XT 185 Watts
Difference: 138 Watts (294%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 7870 XT is 1400% faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

Radeon HD 7870 XT 192000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 12800 MB/sec
Difference: 179200 (1400%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 7870 XT should be a lot (approximately 928%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

Radeon HD 7870 XT 88800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 8640 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 80160 (928%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 7870 XT should be a lot (about 585%) better at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, and will be able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

Radeon HD 7870 XT 29600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 4320 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 25280 (585%)

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 512MB DDR2

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 7870 XT

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.

Specifications

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Model GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 Radeon HD 7870 XT
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year April 2007 November 2012
Code Name G84 Tahiti LE
Memory 512 MB 2048 MB
Core Speed 540 MHz 925 MHz
Memory Speed 800 MHz 6000 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 47 watts 185 watts
Bandwidth 12800 MB/sec 192000 MB/sec
Texel Rate 8640 Mtexels/sec 88800 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 4320 Mpixels/sec 29600 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 32 1536
Texture Mapping Units 16 96
Render Output Units 8 32
Bus Type DDR2 GDDR5
Bus Width 128-bit 256-bit
Fab Process 80 nm 28 nm
Transistors 289 million 4313 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: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster 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 are applied per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 7870 XT

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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