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GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce 9500 GT DDR2

Intro

The GeForce 8600 GTS uses a 80 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 675 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM runs at a speed of 1000 MHz on this specific model. It features 32 SPUs as well as 16 Texture Address Units and 8 ROPs.

Compare those specifications to the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2, which comes with a clock speed of 550 MHz and a DDR2 memory frequency of 500 MHz. It also uses a 128-bit bus, and makes use of a 65 nm design. It features 32 SPUs, 16 Texture Address Units, and 8 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 50 Watts
GeForce 8600 GTS 75 Watts
Difference: 25 Watts (50%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 8600 GTS, in theory, should perform much faster than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS 32000 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 16000 MB/sec
Difference: 16000 (100%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GTS will be much (more or less 23%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS 10800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 8800 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 2000 (23%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GTS should be a lot (approximately 23%) better at AA than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2, and capable of handling higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS 5400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 4400 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 1000 (23%)

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 GTS

Amazon.com

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GeForce 9500 GT DDR2

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 GTS GeForce 9500 GT DDR2
Manufacturer nVidia nVidia
Year April 2007 July 2008
Code Name G84 G96a
Memory 512 MB 256 MB
Core Speed 675 MHz 550 MHz
Memory Speed 2000 MHz 1000 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 75 watts 50 watts
Bandwidth 32000 MB/sec 16000 MB/sec
Texel Rate 10800 Mtexels/sec 8800 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 5400 Mpixels/sec 4400 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 32 32
Texture Mapping Units 16 16
Render Output Units 8 8
Bus Type GDDR3 DDR2
Bus Width 128-bit 128-bit
Fab Process 80 nm 65 nm
Transistors 289 million 314 million
Bus PCIe x16 PCIe x16 2.0, PCI
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 10
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.0

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

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core 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 rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.

Display Prices

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GeForce 8600 GTS

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

GeForce 9500 GT DDR2

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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