GeForce 8600 GS (OEM) vs GeForce GT 320

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GT 320, which comes with core clock speeds of 540 MHz on the GPU, and 790 MHz on the 1024 MB of GDDR3 memory. It features 72 SPUs along with 24 TAUs and 8 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 320		43 Watts
GeForce 8600 GS (OEM)		47 Watts
	Difference: 4 Watts (9%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GT 320 should theoretically be quite a bit better than the GeForce 8600 GS (OEM) overall. (explain)

GeForce GT 320		25280 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GS (OEM)		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 12480 (98%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 320 should be much (about 50%) better at AF than the GeForce 8600 GS (OEM). (explain)

GeForce GT 320		12960 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GS (OEM)		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 4320 (50%)

Pixel Rate

Both cards have exactly the same pixel rate, so in theory they should perform equally good at at anti-aliasing, and be capable of handling the same resolutions. (explain)

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 (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out 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 outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.