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GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce GT 230

Intro

The GeForce 8600 GTS makes use of a 80 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 675 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM works at a speed of 1000 MHz on this model. It features 32 SPUs as well as 16 TAUs and 8 Rasterization Operator Units.

Compare that to the GeForce GT 230, which comes with GPU core speed of 550 MHz, and 1536 MB of DDR3 RAM set to run at 800 MHz through a 192-bit bus. It also is comprised of 32 SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 230 65 Watts
GeForce 8600 GTS 75 Watts
Difference: 10 Watts (15%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GT 230 should in theory be just a bit superior to the GeForce 8600 GTS in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 230 38400 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS 32000 MB/sec
Difference: 6400 (20%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GTS is much (more or less 23%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 230. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS 10800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 230 8800 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 2000 (23%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GTS will be much (approximately 23%) more effective at AA than the GeForce GT 230, and should be able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS 5400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 230 4400 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 1000 (23%)

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

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GeForce 8600 GTS

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

GeForce GT 230

Amazon.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.

Specifications

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Model GeForce 8600 GTS GeForce GT 230
Manufacturer nVidia nVidia
Year April 2007 October 2009
Code Name G84 GT218
Memory 512 MB 1536 MB
Core Speed 675 MHz 550 MHz
Memory Speed 2000 MHz 1600 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 75 watts 65 watts
Bandwidth 32000 MB/sec 38400 MB/sec
Texel Rate 10800 Mtexels/sec 8800 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 5400 Mpixels/sec 4400 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 32 32
Texture Mapping Units 16 16
Render Output Units 8 8
Bus Type GDDR3 DDR3
Bus Width 128-bit 192-bit
Fab Process 80 nm 40 nm
Transistors 289 million 260 million
Bus PCIe x16 PCIe 2.0
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.2

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's 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 are processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.

Display Prices

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GeForce 8600 GTS

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

GeForce GT 230

Amazon.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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