GeForce 8600 GTS vs Radeon HD 3650

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 3650, which has GPU core speed of 725 MHz, and 1024 MB of GDDR4 memory set to run at 800 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 120(24x5) Stream Processors, 8 TAUs, and 4 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
Radeon HD 3650		78 Watts
	Difference: 3 Watts (4%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce 8600 GTS should perform much faster than the Radeon HD 3650 in general. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3650		25600 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (25%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GTS should be quite a bit (about 86%) more effective at texture filtering than the Radeon HD 3650. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3650		5800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 5000 (86%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 8600 GTS is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3650		2900 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2500 (86%)

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 maximum amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the 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 maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.