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GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce 8800 GS

Intro

The GeForce 8600 GTS features a core clock frequency of 675 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 1000 MHz. It also features a 128-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 80 nm design. It is comprised of 32 SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 8 Raster Operation Units.

Compare that to the GeForce 8800 GS, which features a core clock speed of 550 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 800 MHz. It also uses a 192-bit memory bus, and uses a 65 nm design. It features 96 SPUs, 48 Texture Address Units, and 12 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
GeForce 8800 GS		105 Watts
	Difference: 30 Watts (40%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce 8800 GS should perform a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GTS in general. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GS		38400 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (20%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GS will be quite a bit (more or less 144%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 8600 GTS. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GS		26400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 15600 (144%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GS should be quite a bit (approximately 22%) better at AA than the GeForce 8600 GTS, and also should be able to handle higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GS		6600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1200 (22%)

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

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GeForce 8800 GS

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Specifications

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Model	GeForce 8600 GTS	GeForce 8800 GS
Manufacturer	nVidia	nVidia
Year	April 2007	Jan 2008
Code Name	G84	G92
Memory	512 MB	384 MB
Core Speed	675 MHz	550 MHz
Memory Speed	2000 MHz	1600 MHz
Power (Max TDP)	75 watts	105 watts
Bandwidth	32000 MB/sec	38400 MB/sec
Texel Rate	10800 Mtexels/sec	26400 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate	5400 Mpixels/sec	6600 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders	32	96
Texture Mapping Units	16	48
Render Output Units	8	12
Bus Type	GDDR3	GDDR3
Bus Width	128-bit	192-bit
Fab Process	80 nm	65 nm
Transistors	289 million	754 million
Bus	PCIe x16	PCIe x16 2.0
DirectX Version	DirectX 10	DirectX 10
OpenGL Version	OpenGL 3.0	OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

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

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