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GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 vs Radeon HD 4650 1GB

Intro

The GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 has a GPU core clock speed of 540 MHz, and the 256 MB of DDR2 memory is set to run at 400 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 32 Stream Processors, 16 Texture Address Units, and 8 ROPs.

Compare that to the Radeon HD 4650 1GB, which uses a 55 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 600 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM runs at a speed of 700 MHz on this specific model. It features 320(64x5) SPUs along with 32 Texture Address Units and 8 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 47 Watts
Radeon HD 4650 1GB 55 Watts
Difference: 8 Watts (17%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon HD 4650 1GB, in theory, should perform much faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 4650 1GB 22400 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 12800 MB/sec
Difference: 9600 (75%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 4650 1GB should be quite a bit (more or less 122%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2. (explain)

Radeon HD 4650 1GB 19200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 8640 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 10560 (122%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the Radeon HD 4650 1GB is the winner, but not by far. (explain)

Radeon HD 4650 1GB 4800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 4320 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 480 (11%)

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 DDR2

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 4650 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 256MB DDR2 Radeon HD 4650 1GB
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year April 2007 Sep 10, 2008
Code Name G84 RV730 PRO
Memory 256 MB 1024 MB
Core Speed 540 MHz 600 MHz
Memory Speed 800 MHz 1400 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 47 watts 55 watts
Bandwidth 12800 MB/sec 22400 MB/sec
Texel Rate 8640 Mtexels/sec 19200 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 4320 Mpixels/sec 4800 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 32 320(64x5)
Texture Mapping Units 16 32
Render Output Units 8 8
Bus Type DDR2 GDDR3
Bus Width 128-bit 128-bit
Fab Process 80 nm 55 nm
Transistors 289 million 514 million
Bus PCIe x16 PCIe 2.0 x16, AGP 8x
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 (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units 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 processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably 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 256MB DDR2

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 4650 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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