GeForce 8600 GS (OEM) vs GeForce GTS 450 1GB

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTS 450 1GB, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 783 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM works at a frequency of 902 MHz on this card. It features 192 SPUs as well as 32 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GS (OEM)		47 Watts
GeForce GTS 450 1GB		106 Watts
	Difference: 59 Watts (126%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTS 450 1GB, in theory, should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GS (OEM) in general. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		57728 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GS (OEM)		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 44928 (351%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTS 450 1GB should be much (approximately 190%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8600 GS (OEM). (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		25056 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GS (OEM)		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 16416 (190%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTS 450 1GB is superior to the GeForce 8600 GS (OEM), by far. (explain)

GeForce GTS 450 1GB		12528 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GS (OEM)		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 8208 (190%)

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 (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses 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 texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, 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 maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.