GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 vs GeForce 8800 GT 512MB

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB, which features core clock speeds of 600 MHz on the GPU, and 900 MHz on the 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM. It features 112 SPUs along with 56 Texture Address Units and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		47 Watts
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		105 Watts
	Difference: 58 Watts (123%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 35200 (157%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GT 512MB should be a lot (approximately 289%) better at AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 24960 (289%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GT 512MB will be much (about 122%) more effective at AA than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3, and also should be capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		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 max amount of information (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.