GeForce 8600 GTS vs Radeon HD 3470 256MB

Intro

Compare that to the Radeon HD 3470 256MB, which makes use of a 55 nm design. AMD has set the core speed at 800 MHz. The DDR2 memory is set to run at a speed of 950 MHz on this particular model. It features 40(8x5) SPUs as well as 4 TAUs and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 8600 GTS should in theory be just a bit faster than the Radeon HD 3470 256MB in general. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3470 256MB		30400 MB/sec
	Difference: 1600 (5%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GTS should be quite a bit (approximately 238%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 3470 256MB. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 256MB		3200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 7600 (238%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GTS will be quite a bit (about 69%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the Radeon HD 3470 256MB, and also able to handle higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 256MB		3200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2200 (69%)

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: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a 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. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.