GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 vs Radeon HD 4890 1GB

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 4890 1GB, which makes use of a 55 nm design. AMD has clocked the core speed at 1000 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a frequency of 975 MHz on this specific model. It features 800(160x5) SPUs as well as 40 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		47 Watts
Radeon HD 4890 1GB		190 Watts
	Difference: 143 Watts (304%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon HD 4890 1GB should be much faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 4890 1GB		124800 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 102400 (457%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4890 1GB will be a lot (more or less 363%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3. (explain)

Radeon HD 4890 1GB		40000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 31360 (363%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the Radeon HD 4890 1GB is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

Radeon HD 4890 1GB		16000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB 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

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock 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 rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.