GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce 9800 GT 1GB

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce 9800 GT 1GB, which has a core clock speed of 600 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 900 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and makes use of a 65/55 nm design. It is made up of 112 SPUs, 56 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		105 Watts
	Difference: 58 Watts (123%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 9800 GT 1GB, in theory, should be a lot faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 overall. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 44800 (350%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9800 GT 1GB will be much (more or less 289%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		33600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 24960 (289%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 9800 GT 1GB is superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce 9800 GT 1GB		9600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5280 (122%)

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 largest amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR RAM, it 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, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.