GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 vs GeForce GT 220 GDDR3

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 220 GDDR3, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 625 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM works at a speed of 1012 MHz on this model. It features 48 SPUs along with 16 TAUs and 8 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		47 Watts
GeForce GT 220 GDDR3		58 Watts
	Difference: 11 Watts (23%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GT 220 GDDR3 should be much faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 220 GDDR3		32384 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 9984 (45%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 220 GDDR3 should be a small bit (more or less 16%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GT 220 GDDR3		10000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 1360 (16%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 220 GDDR3 will be a small bit (approximately 16%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3, and capable of handling higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GT 220 GDDR3		5000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 680 (16%)

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 megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated 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 drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.