GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 vs Radeon R9 380 4G

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon R9 380 4G, which uses a 28 nm design. AMD has clocked the core frequency at 970 MHz. The GDDR5 memory is set to run at a speed of 1425 MHz on this particular model. It features 1792 SPUs along with 112 TAUs and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		47 Watts
Radeon R9 380 4G		190 Watts
	Difference: 143 Watts (304%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the Radeon R9 380 4G should be much faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

Radeon R9 380 4G		182400 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 160000 (714%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 380 4G should be quite a bit (more or less 1157%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3. (explain)

Radeon R9 380 4G		108640 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 100000 (1157%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the Radeon R9 380 4G is a better choice, and very much so. (explain)

Radeon R9 380 4G		31040 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 26720 (619%)

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 data (counted in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the core 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 output rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.