GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 vs GeForce GT 310

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GT 310, which comes with GPU clock speed of 589 MHz, and 512 MB of DDR2 RAM running at 1000 MHz through a 64-bit bus. It also features 16 Stream Processors, 8 Texture Address Units, and 4 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 310		31 Watts
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		47 Watts
	Difference: 16 Watts (52%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GT 310 should be a lot faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 overall. (explain)

GeForce GT 310		16000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 3200 (25%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 is a lot (about 83%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GT 310. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 310		4712 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 3928 (83%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 is the winner, by far. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 310		2356 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1964 (83%)

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 (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at 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 that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.