GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce GT 320

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 320, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 540 MHz. The GDDR3 memory runs at a frequency of 790 MHz on this model. It features 72 SPUs along with 24 TAUs and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 320		43 Watts
GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
	Difference: 32 Watts (74%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 8600 GTS should be 27% quicker than the GeForce GT 320 overall, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
GeForce GT 320		25280 MB/sec
	Difference: 6720 (27%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 320 is a bit (more or less 20%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 8600 GTS. (explain)

GeForce GT 320		12960 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2160 (20%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 8600 GTS is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 320		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1080 (25%)

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 maximum amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's 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 texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core 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 applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs 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 output rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.