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GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512

Intro

The GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 features a GPU core speed of 540 MHz, and the 512 MB of DDR2 memory runs at 400 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 32 Stream Processors, 16 Texture Address Units, and 8 Raster Operation Units.

Compare those specifications to the GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512, which makes use of a 65 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 550 MHz. The DDR2 RAM works at a frequency of 500 MHz on this model. It features 96 SPUs along with 48 TAUs and 12 Rasterization Operator Units.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 47 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 84 Watts
Difference: 37 Watts (79%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 will be 25% faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 overall, because of its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 16000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 12800 MB/sec
Difference: 3200 (25%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 should be a lot (more or less 206%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 26400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 8640 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 17760 (206%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 is much (about 53%) better at AA than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, and also able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512 6600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 4320 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 2280 (53%)

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 DDR2

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512

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.

Specifications

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Model GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512
Manufacturer nVidia nVidia
Year April 2007 September 2008
Code Name G84 G92
Memory 512 MB 512 MB
Core Speed 540 MHz 550 MHz
Memory Speed 800 MHz 1000 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 47 watts 84 watts
Bandwidth 12800 MB/sec 16000 MB/sec
Texel Rate 8640 Mtexels/sec 26400 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 4320 Mpixels/sec 6600 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 32 96
Texture Mapping Units 16 48
Render Output Units 8 12
Bus Type DDR2 DDR2
Bus Width 128-bit 128-bit
Fab Process 80 nm 65 nm
Transistors 289 million 754 million
Bus PCIe x16 PCIe x16 2.0
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 10
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the largest amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. 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 rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

GeForce 9600 GSO ASUS 512

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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