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GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce GT 210

Intro

The GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 comes with a clock frequency of 540 MHz and a DDR2 memory speed of 400 MHz. It also features a 128-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 80 nm design. It features 32 SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 8 Raster Operation Units.

Compare that to the GeForce GT 210, which uses a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 589 MHz. The DDR3 memory is set to run at a speed of 800 MHz on this model. It features 16 SPUs as well as 8 TAUs and 4 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 210		31 Watts
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
	Difference: 16 Watts (52%)

Memory Bandwidth

Both cards have the exact same bandwidth, so in theory they should have the same performance. (explain)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 is much (about 83%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 210. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 210		4712 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 3928 (83%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 is superior to the GeForce GT 210, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 210		2356 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1964 (83%)

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

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GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2

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GeForce GT 210

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Specifications

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Model	GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2	GeForce GT 210
Manufacturer	nVidia	nVidia
Year	April 2007	October 2009
Code Name	G84	GT218
Memory	512 MB	512 MB
Core Speed	540 MHz	589 MHz
Memory Speed	800 MHz	1600 MHz
Power (Max TDP)	47 watts	31 watts
Bandwidth	12800 MB/sec	12800 MB/sec
Texel Rate	8640 Mtexels/sec	4712 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate	4320 Mpixels/sec	2356 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders	32	16
Texture Mapping Units	16	8
Render Output Units	8	4
Bus Type	DDR2	DDR3
Bus Width	128-bit	64-bit
Fab Process	80 nm	40 nm
Transistors	289 million	260 million
Bus	PCIe x16	PCIe 2.0
DirectX Version	DirectX 10	DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version	OpenGL 3.0	OpenGL 3.2

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it must 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, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card could 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 ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.

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