GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 vs GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3, which has a core clock speed of 550 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 800 MHz. It also uses a 128-bit bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is made up of 32 SPUs, 16 Texture Address Units, and 8 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		47 Watts
GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3		50 Watts
	Difference: 3 Watts (6%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3 should perform just a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3		25600 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 3200 (14%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3 should be a little bit (more or less 2%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3		8800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 160 (2%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3 is superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3, though not by far. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3		4400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 80 (2%)

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: Bandwidth is the largest amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out 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 ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.