GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 vs GeForce 8800 GT 1GB

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce 8800 GT 1GB, which has a GPU core clock speed of 600 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR3 RAM running at 900 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 112 SPUs, 56 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce 8800 GT 1GB		105 Watts
	Difference: 58 Watts (123%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce 8800 GT 1GB should in theory be quite a bit better than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 1GB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 44800 (350%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GT 1GB should be quite a bit (approximately 289%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 1GB		33600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 24960 (289%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce 8800 GT 1GB is the winner, by far. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 1GB		9600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5280 (122%)

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 maximum amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units 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 is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.