GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs Radeon HD 3850 512MB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 3850 512MB, which uses a 55 nm design. AMD has set the core speed at 668 MHz. The GDDR3 memory runs at a frequency of 828 MHz on this specific model. It features 320(64x5) SPUs as well as 16 Texture Address Units and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		47 Watts
Radeon HD 3850 512MB		75 Watts
	Difference: 28 Watts (60%)

Memory Bandwidth

The Radeon HD 3850 512MB should in theory perform a lot faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

Radeon HD 3850 512MB		52992 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 30592 (137%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 3850 512MB will be quite a bit (approximately 24%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

Radeon HD 3850 512MB		10688 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2048 (24%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the Radeon HD 3850 512MB is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

Radeon HD 3850 512MB		10688 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 6368 (147%)

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: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.