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GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce GT 210

Intro

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

Compare those specs 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 is set to run at a speed of 800 MHz on this card. It features 16 SPUs as well as 8 Texture Address Units 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 exactly the same memory bandwidth, so in theory they should perform the same. (explain)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 will be much (about 83%) more effective at AF 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

The GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 will be quite a bit (more or less 83%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce GT 210, and also will be capable of handling higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (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: Bandwidth is the max amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.

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