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GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs Radeon HD 3470 512MB

Intro

The GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 comes with a GPU core speed of 540 MHz, and the 512 MB of DDR2 RAM runs at 400 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 32 Stream Processors, 16 TAUs, and 8 Raster Operation Units.

Compare all that to the Radeon HD 3470 512MB, which has a clock frequency of 800 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 950 MHz. It also uses a 128-bit bus, and uses a 55 nm design. It features 40(8x5) SPUs, 4 Texture Address Units, and 4 Raster Operation Units.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Radeon HD 3470 512MB should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 3470 512MB 30400 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 12800 MB/sec
Difference: 17600 (138%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 is much (approximately 170%) more effective at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 3470 512MB. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 8640 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 512MB 3200 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 5440 (170%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 is superior to the Radeon HD 3470 512MB, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 4320 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 512MB 3200 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 1120 (35%)

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

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Radeon HD 3470 512MB

Amazon.com

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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 3470 512MB
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year April 2007 2008
Code Name G84 RV620 PRO
Memory 512 MB 512 MB
Core Speed 540 MHz 800 MHz
Memory Speed 800 MHz 1900 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 47 watts (Unknown) watts
Bandwidth 12800 MB/sec 30400 MB/sec
Texel Rate 8640 Mtexels/sec 3200 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 4320 Mpixels/sec 3200 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 32 40(8x5)
Texture Mapping Units 16 4
Render Output Units 8 4
Bus Type DDR2 GDDR3
Bus Width 128-bit 128-bit
Fab Process 80 nm 55 nm
Transistors 289 million (Unknown) 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: Bandwidth is the max amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.

Display Prices

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GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 3470 512MB

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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