GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 vs GeForce 8600 GTS

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce 8600 GTS, which uses a 80 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 675 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM works at a speed of 1000 MHz on this particular model. It features 32 SPUs along with 16 TAUs and 8 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
	Difference: 28 Watts (60%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 8600 GTS should in theory perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 19200 (150%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GTS should be much (more or less 25%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2160 (25%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GTS is a lot (more or less 25%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2, and also capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1080 (25%)

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 data (measured in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the better 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 are applied per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can possibly write to its 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 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 output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.