GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3, which features clock speeds of 550 MHz on the GPU, and 800 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR3 memory. It features 32 SPUs as well as 16 TAUs and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		50 Watts
	Difference: 3 Watts (6%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 should theoretically be much faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		25600 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 12800 (100%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 will be just a bit (approximately 2%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		8800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 160 (2%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA 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 DDR2		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 information (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses 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 high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

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