GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB, which comes with a clock frequency of 550 MHz and a GDDR3 memory speed of 800 MHz. It also features a 192-bit bus, and uses a 65 nm design. It is comprised of 96 SPUs, 48 Texture Address Units, and 12 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		84 Watts
	Difference: 9 Watts (12%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB should perform a little bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GTS overall. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		38400 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (20%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB will be quite a bit (about 144%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GTS. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		26400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 15600 (144%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB will be much (more or less 22%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GTS, and will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB		6600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1200 (22%)

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 data (counted in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.