GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce 8800 GTS (G92)

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce 8800 GTS (G92), which comes with a clock frequency of 650 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 970 MHz. It also uses a 256-bit bus, and makes use of a 65 nm design. It is made up of 128 SPUs, 64 TAUs, 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 8800 GTS (G92)		135 Watts
	Difference: 88 Watts (187%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) should be a lot faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G92)		62080 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 49280 (385%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) will be quite a bit (about 381%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G92)		41600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 32960 (381%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) will be much (approximately 141%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, and also will be capable of handling higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G92)		10400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 6080 (141%)

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 largest amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, 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 in one second. This figure 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 in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on 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 ability to get to the max fill rate.