GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 vs GeForce 8600 GTS

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce 8600 GTS, which has a clock frequency of 675 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 1000 MHz. It also uses a 128-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 80 nm design. It features 32 SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
	Difference: 28 Watts (60%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce 8600 GTS is 150% quicker than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 overall, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 19200 (150%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GTS should be a lot (more or less 25%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2160 (25%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce 8600 GTS is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1080 (25%)

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 maximum amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.