GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce GT 210

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GT 210, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 589 MHz. The DDR3 RAM works at a frequency of 800 MHz on this model. It features 16 SPUs along with 8 TAUs and 4 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 210		31 Watts
GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
	Difference: 44 Watts (142%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 8600 GTS should perform a lot faster than the GeForce GT 210 overall. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
GeForce GT 210		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 19200 (150%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GTS will be quite a bit (about 129%) better at AF than the GeForce GT 210. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 210		4712 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 6088 (129%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 8600 GTS is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 210		2356 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3044 (129%)

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 maximum amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video 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 could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated 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 fill rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.