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GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce 9800 GX2
Intro
The GeForce 8600 GTS makes use of a 80 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 675 MHz. The GDDR3 memory is set to run at a frequency of 1000 MHz on this specific card. It features 32 SPUs along with 16 Texture Address Units and 8 Rasterization Operator Units.Compare those specs to the GeForce 9800 GX2, which comes with core clock speeds of 600 MHz on the GPU, and 1000 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM. It features 128 SPUs along with 64 Texture Address Units and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.
Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks
Power Consumption (Max TDP)
| GeForce 8600 GTS |
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75 Watts |
| GeForce 9800 GX2 |
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197 Watts |
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Memory Bandwidth
As far as performance goes, the GeForce 9800 GX2 should theoretically be quite a bit superior to the GeForce 8600 GTS in general. (explain)
| GeForce 9800 GX2 |
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128000 MB/sec |
| GeForce 8600 GTS |
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32000 MB/sec |
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Texel Rate
The GeForce 9800 GX2 is quite a bit (about 611%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GTS. (explain)| GeForce 9800 GX2 |
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76800 Mtexels/sec |
| GeForce 8600 GTS |
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10800 Mtexels/sec |
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Pixel Rate
The GeForce 9800 GX2 will be much (more or less 256%) better at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GTS, and should be able to handle higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)| GeForce 9800 GX2 |
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19200 Mpixels/sec |
| GeForce 8600 GTS |
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5400 Mpixels/sec |
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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.
One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.
Price Comparison
GeForce 8600 GTSAmazon.com
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GeForce 9800 GX2Amazon.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
| Model | GeForce 8600 GTS | GeForce 9800 GX2 |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturer | nVidia | nVidia |
| Year | April 2007 | Mar 2008 |
| Code Name | G84 | G92 |
| Memory | 512 MB | 512 MB (x2) |
| Core Speed | 675 MHz | 600 MHz (x2) |
| Memory Speed | 2000 MHz | 2000 MHz (x2) |
| Power (Max TDP) | 75 watts | 197 watts |
| Bandwidth | 32000 MB/sec | 128000 MB/sec |
| Texel Rate | 10800 Mtexels/sec | 76800 Mtexels/sec |
| Pixel Rate | 5400 Mpixels/sec | 19200 Mpixels/sec |
| Unified Shaders | 32 | 128 (x2) |
| Texture Mapping Units | 16 | 64 (x2) |
| Render Output Units | 8 | 16 (x2) |
| Bus Type | GDDR3 | GDDR3 |
| Bus Width | 128-bit | 256-bit (x2) |
| 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: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.
Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock 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 a second.
Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.
GeForce 8600 GTSAmazon.com
Check prices at:
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GeForce 9800 GX2Amazon.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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