GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3, which makes use of a 55 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 550 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM is set to run at a frequency of 800 MHz on this specific model. It features 32 SPUs as well as 16 Texture Address Units and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		50 Watts
GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
	Difference: 25 Watts (50%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce 8600 GTS should in theory be quite a bit superior to the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		25600 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (25%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GTS will be quite a bit (approximately 23%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2000 (23%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 8600 GTS is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 9500 GT 512MB GDDR3		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1000 (23%)

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 max amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, 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 most pixels the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.