GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3, which comes with GPU clock speed of 550 MHz, and 512 MB of GDDR3 memory running at 800 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 32 Stream Processors, 16 Texture Address Units, and 8 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		47 Watts
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		50 Watts
	Difference: 3 Watts (6%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 should theoretically be just a bit better than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 overall. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		25600 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 3200 (14%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 is just a bit (about 2%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		8800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 160 (2%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 is the winner, not by a very large margin though. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		4400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 80 (2%)

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 largest amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the better 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 can be applied per 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 texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.