GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs Radeon HD 4350

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon HD 4350, which comes with a clock speed of 575 MHz and a DDR2 memory frequency of 500 MHz. It also makes use of a 64-bit bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It features 80(16x5) SPUs, 8 TAUs, and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Radeon HD 4350		22 Watts
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
	Difference: 25 Watts (114%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 should in theory be quite a bit superior to the Radeon HD 4350 in general. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
Radeon HD 4350		8000 MB/sec
	Difference: 4800 (60%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 will be a lot (more or less 88%) better at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 4350. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 4350		4600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 4040 (88%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 should be a lot (approximately 88%) better at AA than the Radeon HD 4350, and capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 4350		2300 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2020 (88%)

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 information (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. 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 anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock 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 applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.