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

Intro

The GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 features a GPU core speed of 540 MHz, and the 1024 MB of GDDR3 RAM runs at 700 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is comprised of 32 Stream Processors, 16 Texture Address Units, and 8 Raster Operation Units.

Compare that to the Radeon HD 4890 1GB, which features core speeds of 1000 MHz on the GPU, and 975 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 800(160x5) SPUs as well as 40 Texture Address Units and 16 ROPs.

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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

Performance-wise, the Radeon HD 4890 1GB should theoretically be much better than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 overall. (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 is quite a bit (approximately 363%) more effective at anisotropic filtering 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

The Radeon HD 4890 1GB will be a lot (about 270%) more effective at AA than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3, and should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (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

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GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 4890 1GB

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 1GB GDDR3 Radeon HD 4890 1GB
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year April 2007 Apr 2, 2009
Code Name G84 RV790 XT
Memory 1024 MB 1024 MB
Core Speed 540 MHz 1000 MHz
Memory Speed 1400 MHz 3900 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 47 watts 190 watts
Bandwidth 22400 MB/sec 124800 MB/sec
Texel Rate 8640 Mtexels/sec 40000 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 4320 Mpixels/sec 16000 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 32 800(160x5)
Texture Mapping Units 16 40
Render Output Units 8 16
Bus Type GDDR3 GDDR5
Bus Width 128-bit 256-bit
Fab Process 80 nm 55 nm
Transistors 289 million 959 million
Bus PCIe x16 PCIe 2.0 x16
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can 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 Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. 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, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 4890 1GB

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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