GeForce 8600 GTS vs Radeon HD 3470 256MB

Intro

Compare those specs to the Radeon HD 3470 256MB, which uses a 55 nm design. AMD has set the core speed at 800 MHz. The DDR2 RAM runs at a speed of 950 MHz on this model. It features 40(8x5) SPUs as well as 4 Texture Address Units and 4 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 8600 GTS should perform a small bit faster than the Radeon HD 3470 256MB in general. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
Radeon HD 3470 256MB		30400 MB/sec
	Difference: 1600 (5%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GTS is much (more or less 238%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the Radeon HD 3470 256MB. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
Radeon HD 3470 256MB		3200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 7600 (238%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing 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 3470 256MB		3200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2200 (69%)

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 data (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it should 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 anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics 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 the video card could possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes 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 - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.