Compare any two graphics cards:
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 vs GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2
IntroThe GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 uses a 80 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 540 MHz. The DDR2 RAM works at a frequency of 400 MHz on this model. It features 32 SPUs along with 16 TAUs and 8 ROPs.Compare all of that to the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, which has a core clock frequency of 540 MHz and a DDR2 memory frequency of 400 MHz. It also uses a 128-bit bus, and uses a 80 nm design. It is made up of 32 SPUs, 16 Texture Address Units, and 8 ROPs.
Display Graphs
Power Usage and Theoretical BenchmarksBoth cards have the same power consumption.Memory BandwidthBoth cards have the exact same memory bandwidth, so in theory they should have identical performance. (explain)
Texel RateBoth cards have exactly the same texel fill rate, so theoretically they should perform equally good at at anisotropic filtering. (explain)Pixel RateBoth cards have exactly the same pixel rate, so in theory they should be equally good at at FSAA, and be capable of handling the same resolutions. (explain)
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
Display Prices
Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though. Specifications
Display Specifications
Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the largest amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 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 high resolutions. Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the card will be at handling 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 chip can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.
Display Prices
Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.
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