GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce GT 320

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GT 320, which has a core clock frequency of 540 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 790 MHz. It also uses a 128-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It features 72 SPUs, 24 TAUs, and 8 Raster Operation Units.

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

The GeForce 8600 GTS should in theory perform a lot faster than the GeForce GT 320 in general. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 320 should be a small bit (approximately 20%) faster with regards to texture filtering 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 superior to the GeForce GT 320, by a large margin. (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 largest amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the 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 write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on 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 ability to get to the max fill rate.