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GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs GeForce GT 315

Intro

The GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 comes with a GPU clock speed of 540 MHz, and the 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM runs at 700 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 32 SPUs, 16 Texture Address Units, and 8 Raster Operation Units.

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 315, which comes with core speeds of 625 MHz on the GPU, and 790 MHz on the 512 MB of DDR3 RAM. It features 48 SPUs along with 16 TAUs and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 47 Watts
GeForce GT 315 52 Watts
Difference: 5 Watts (11%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GT 315 should be 13% faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 overall, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GT 315 25280 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 22400 MB/sec
Difference: 2880 (13%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 315 will be a little bit (approximately 16%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GT 315 10000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 8640 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 1360 (16%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GT 315 is the winner, but not by far. (explain)

GeForce GT 315 5000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 4320 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 680 (16%)

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 512MB GDDR3

Amazon.com

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GeForce GT 315

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 512MB GDDR3 GeForce GT 315
Manufacturer nVidia nVidia
Year April 2007 November 2009
Code Name G84 GT216
Memory 512 MB 512 MB
Core Speed 540 MHz 625 MHz
Memory Speed 1400 MHz 1580 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 47 watts 52 watts
Bandwidth 22400 MB/sec 25280 MB/sec
Texel Rate 8640 Mtexels/sec 10000 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 4320 Mpixels/sec 5000 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 32 48
Texture Mapping Units 16 16
Render Output Units 8 8
Bus Type GDDR3 DDR3
Bus Width 128-bit 128-bit
Fab Process 80 nm 40 nm
Transistors 289 million 486 million
Bus PCIe x16 PCIe 2.0
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 10.1
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 3.2

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of 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 512MB GDDR3

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

GeForce GT 315

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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