GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 vs GeForce GT 320

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GT 320, which features a core clock frequency of 540 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 790 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 40 nm design. It is made up of 72 SPUs, 24 Texture Address Units, and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 320		43 Watts
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		47 Watts
	Difference: 4 Watts (9%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GT 320 will be 98% quicker than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 overall, because of its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GT 320		25280 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 12480 (98%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 320 is a lot (about 50%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GT 320		12960 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 4320 (50%)

Pixel Rate

Both cards have the exact same pixel fill rate, so in theory they should perform equally good at at FSAA, and be able to handle the same resolutions. (explain)

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 data (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.