GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 vs GeForce GT 340

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 340, which has GPU core speed of 550 MHz, and 512 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 850 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also features 96 Stream Processors, 32 Texture Address Units, and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce GT 340		69 Watts
	Difference: 22 Watts (47%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GT 340 should in theory be much faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 340		54400 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 41600 (325%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 340 will be much (more or less 104%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GT 340		17600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 8960 (104%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 340 should be a bit (approximately 2%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2, and also should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GT 340		4400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 80 (2%)

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 information (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card 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 Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.