GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3, which has a clock frequency of 550 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 800 MHz. It also features a 128-bit memory bus, and uses a 55 nm design. It features 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 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3		50 Watts
	Difference: 3 Watts (6%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3 should be a lot faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3		25600 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 12800 (100%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3 should be just a bit (more or less 2%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3		8800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 160 (2%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3 is superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, but it probably won't make a huge difference. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT 1GB GDDR3		4400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		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 max amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, 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 figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.