GeForce 8600 GTS vs Radeon HD 3650 512MB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 3650 512MB, which uses a 55 nm design. AMD has clocked the core frequency at 725 MHz. The GDDR3 memory runs at a frequency of 800 MHz on this particular model. It features 120(24x5) SPUs as well as 8 TAUs and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
Radeon HD 3650 512MB		78 Watts
	Difference: 3 Watts (4%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce 8600 GTS should be quite a bit faster than the Radeon HD 3650 512MB overall. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3650 512MB		25600 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (25%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GTS will be quite a bit (more or less 86%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 3650 512MB. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3650 512MB		5800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 5000 (86%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce 8600 GTS is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
Radeon HD 3650 512MB		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: Bandwidth is the largest amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it 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 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 is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics 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 maximum amount of pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.