GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce GT 230

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GT 230, which comes with core clock speeds of 550 MHz on the GPU, and 800 MHz on the 1536 MB of DDR3 memory. It features 32 SPUs as well as 16 TAUs and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 230		65 Watts
GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
	Difference: 10 Watts (15%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GT 230 should perform a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GTS overall. (explain)

GeForce GT 230		38400 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (20%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GTS is a lot (approximately 23%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 230. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 230		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2000 (23%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GTS should be a lot (about 23%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce GT 230, and should be able to handle higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 230		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1000 (23%)

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 information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.