GeForce 8600 GS (OEM) vs GeForce GT 420

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GT 420, which features a clock frequency of 700 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 900 MHz. It also makes use of a 128-bit bus, and uses a 40 nm design. It is comprised of 48 SPUs, 8 TAUs, and 4 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GS (OEM)		47 Watts
GeForce GT 420		50 Watts
	Difference: 3 Watts (6%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GT 420 should theoretically be a lot superior to the GeForce 8600 GS (OEM) overall. (explain)

GeForce GT 420		28800 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GS (OEM)		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 16000 (125%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GS (OEM) is quite a bit (approximately 54%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GT 420. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GS (OEM)		8640 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 420		5600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 3040 (54%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GS (OEM) should be quite a bit (more or less 54%) better at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 420, and capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GS (OEM)		4320 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 420		2800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1520 (54%)

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: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units 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 in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.