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GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs Radeon HD 3650 256MB

Intro

The GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 has a GPU core speed of 540 MHz, and the 512 MB of GDDR3 memory runs at 700 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 32 SPUs, 16 Texture Address Units, and 8 Raster Operation Units.

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 3650 256MB, which comes with a core clock speed of 725 MHz and a DDR2 memory frequency of 800 MHz. It also uses a 128-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 55 nm design. It is comprised of 120(24x5) SPUs, 8 Texture Address Units, and 4 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 47 Watts
Radeon HD 3650 256MB 78 Watts
Difference: 31 Watts (66%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon HD 3650 256MB should be 14% faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 in general, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon HD 3650 256MB 25600 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 22400 MB/sec
Difference: 3200 (14%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 should be a lot (about 49%) better at AF than the Radeon HD 3650 256MB. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 8640 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3650 256MB 5800 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 2840 (49%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 is superior to the Radeon HD 3650 256MB, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 4320 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3650 256MB 2900 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 1420 (49%)

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 GDDR3

Amazon.com

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Radeon HD 3650 256MB

Amazon.com

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Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

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Model GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 Radeon HD 3650 256MB
Manufacturer nVidia AMD
Year April 2007 2008
Code Name G84 RV635 PRO
Memory 512 MB 256 MB
Core Speed 540 MHz 725 MHz
Memory Speed 1400 MHz 1600 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 47 watts 78 watts
Bandwidth 22400 MB/sec 25600 MB/sec
Texel Rate 8640 Mtexels/sec 5800 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 4320 Mpixels/sec 2900 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 32 120(24x5)
Texture Mapping Units 16 8
Render Output Units 8 4
Bus Type GDDR3 DDR2
Bus Width 128-bit 128-bit
Fab Process 80 nm 55 nm
Transistors 289 million (Unknown) million
Bus PCIe x16 PCIe 2.0 x16/AGP 8x
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the max amount of information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at 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 a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.

Display Prices

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GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Radeon HD 3650 256MB

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

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