GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce 9800 GTX

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce 9800 GTX, which has GPU core speed of 675 MHz, and 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM running at 1100 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 128 Stream Processors, 64 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 DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce 9800 GTX		140 Watts
	Difference: 93 Watts (198%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce 9800 GTX should in theory be quite a bit better than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		70400 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 57600 (450%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GTX should be quite a bit (approximately 400%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		43200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 34560 (400%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 9800 GTX is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GTX		10800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 6480 (150%)

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 largest amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.