GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce GT 315

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GT 315, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 625 MHz. The DDR3 RAM runs at a speed of 790 MHz on this particular model. It features 48 SPUs as well as 16 Texture Address Units and 8 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce GT 315		52 Watts
	Difference: 5 Watts (11%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GT 315 should in theory perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 overall. (explain)

GeForce GT 315		25280 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 12480 (98%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 315 is a little bit (approximately 16%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GT 315		10000 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 1360 (16%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 315 will be a little bit (more or less 16%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, and also capable of handling higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GT 315		5000 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		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

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the largest amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed 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 graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.