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GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 vs GeForce 8800 GS

Intro

The GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 uses a 80 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 540 MHz. The GDDR3 memory is set to run at a frequency of 700 MHz on this specific model. It features 32 SPUs as well as 16 TAUs and 8 Rasterization Operator Units.

Compare that to the GeForce 8800 GS, which has core clock speeds of 550 MHz on the GPU, and 800 MHz on the 384 MB of GDDR3 RAM. It features 96 SPUs as well as 48 Texture Address Units and 12 Rasterization Operator Units.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 47 Watts
GeForce 8800 GS 105 Watts
Difference: 58 Watts (123%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce 8800 GS should be 71% faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 overall, because of its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GS 38400 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 22400 MB/sec
Difference: 16000 (71%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GS will be much (more or less 206%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GS 26400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 8640 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 17760 (206%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce 8800 GS is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GS 6600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 4320 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 2280 (53%)

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 256MB GDDR3

Amazon.com

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GeForce 8800 GS

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 256MB GDDR3 GeForce 8800 GS
Manufacturer nVidia nVidia
Year April 2007 Jan 2008
Code Name G84 G92
Memory 256 MB 384 MB
Core Speed 540 MHz 550 MHz
Memory Speed 1400 MHz 1600 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 47 watts 105 watts
Bandwidth 22400 MB/sec 38400 MB/sec
Texel Rate 8640 Mtexels/sec 26400 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 4320 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: Bandwidth is the max amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range 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 figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core 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 in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.

Display Prices

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GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

GeForce 8800 GS

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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