GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce 9500 GT DDR2

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2, which uses a 65 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 550 MHz. The DDR2 RAM is set to run at a speed of 500 MHz on this particular model. It features 32 SPUs as well as 16 TAUs and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		50 Watts
GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
	Difference: 25 Watts (50%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 8600 GTS should be much faster than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 overall. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		16000 MB/sec
	Difference: 16000 (100%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GTS should be a lot (about 23%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2000 (23%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce 8600 GTS is superior to the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT DDR2		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1000 (23%)

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 (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.