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GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 vs GeForce GT 420

Intro

The GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 uses a 80 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 540 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM runs at a frequency of 700 MHz on this model. It features 32 SPUs as well as 16 Texture Address Units and 8 ROPs.

Compare that to the GeForce GT 420, which has a GPU core clock speed of 700 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR3 memory set to run at 900 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 48 Stream Processors, 8 Texture Address Units, and 4 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 47 Watts
GeForce GT 420 50 Watts
Difference: 3 Watts (6%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GT 420 is 29% quicker than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 overall, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GT 420 28800 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 22400 MB/sec
Difference: 6400 (29%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 will be a lot (more or less 54%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GT 420. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 8640 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 420 5600 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 3040 (54%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 should be a lot (approximately 54%) more effective at AA than the GeForce GT 420, and also will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 4320 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 420 2800 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 1520 (54%)

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

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GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3

Amazon.com

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GeForce GT 420

Amazon.com

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Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

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Model GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 GeForce GT 420
Manufacturer nVidia nVidia
Year April 2007 September 2010
Code Name G84 GF108
Memory 1024 MB 2048 MB
Core Speed 540 MHz 700 MHz
Memory Speed 1400 MHz 1800 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 47 watts 50 watts
Bandwidth 22400 MB/sec 28800 MB/sec
Texel Rate 8640 Mtexels/sec 5600 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 4320 Mpixels/sec 2800 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 32 48
Texture Mapping Units 16 8
Render Output Units 8 4
Bus Type GDDR3 GDDR3
Bus Width 128-bit 128-bit
Fab Process 80 nm 40 nm
Transistors 289 million 585 million
Bus PCIe x16 PCIe x16
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 11
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 4.1

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the max amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type memory, it must 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, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher 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 maximum amount of pixels the video 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 Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.

Display Prices

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GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

GeForce GT 420

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

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