GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB, which uses a 90 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 513 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM works at a frequency of 792 MHz on this specific card. It features 96 SPUs as well as 48 Texture Address Units and 20 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		47 Watts
GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		143 Watts
	Difference: 96 Watts (204%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB should theoretically be a lot better than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 overall. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		63360 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 40960 (183%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB will be much (more or less 185%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		24624 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 15984 (185%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB should be much (about 138%) better at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3, and also will be capable of handling higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G80) 640MB		10260 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5940 (138%)

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 largest amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster 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 can be processed per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better 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 amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the 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 - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.