GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce GT 220 GDDR3

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GT 220 GDDR3, which makes use of a 40 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 625 MHz. The GDDR3 memory works at a speed of 1012 MHz on this particular model. It features 48 SPUs as well as 16 TAUs and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 220 GDDR3		58 Watts
GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
	Difference: 17 Watts (29%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GT 220 GDDR3 should in theory be a little bit superior to the GeForce 8600 GTS in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 220 GDDR3		32384 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 384 (1%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GTS should be a small bit (about 8%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 220 GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 220 GDDR3		10000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 800 (8%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 8600 GTS is a better choice, though only just barely. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 220 GDDR3		5000 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 400 (8%)

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 data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the better 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 applied per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video 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 Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.