GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce 8800 GT 256MB

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB, which makes use of a 65 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 600 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM runs at a frequency of 700 MHz on this particular card. It features 112 SPUs as well as 56 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		105 Watts
	Difference: 30 Watts (40%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 8800 GT 256MB should in theory be a lot faster than the GeForce 8600 GTS overall. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		44800 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 12800 (40%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GT 256MB will be a lot (about 211%) better at AF than the GeForce 8600 GTS. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 22800 (211%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4200 (78%)

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 information (in units of MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once 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, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at handling 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 can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.