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GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce 8800 GS

Intro

The GeForce 8600 GTS comes with a GPU core speed of 675 MHz, and the 512 MB of GDDR3 memory runs at 1000 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also features 32 Stream Processors, 16 TAUs, and 8 ROPs.

Compare that to the GeForce 8800 GS, which features a GPU core clock speed of 550 MHz, and 384 MB of GDDR3 memory set to run at 800 MHz through a 192-bit bus. It also features 96 Stream Processors, 48 TAUs, 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

In theory, the GeForce 8800 GS will be 20% quicker than the GeForce 8600 GTS overall, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GS should be quite a bit (approximately 144%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GTS. (explain)

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

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 8800 GS is a better choice, and very much so. (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 max amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, 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 amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.

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