Compare any two graphics cards:
GeForce 8500 GT vs GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2
IntroThe GeForce 8500 GT makes use of a 80 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 450 MHz. The DDR2 memory runs at a frequency of 400 MHz on this particular card. It features 16 SPUs along with 8 Texture Address Units and 4 ROPs.Compare all that to the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2, which has a GPU core clock speed of 540 MHz, and 256 MB of DDR2 RAM set to run at 400 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 32 Stream Processors, 16 TAUs, and 8 ROPs.
Display Graphs
Power Usage and Theoretical BenchmarksPower Consumption (Max TDP)
Memory BandwidthBoth cards have the exact same memory bandwidth, so theoretically they should have identical performance. (explain)
Texel RateThe GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 is quite a bit (about 140%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8500 GT. (explain)
Pixel RateIf running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 is the winner, by far. (explain)
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
Display Prices
Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though. Specifications
Display Specifications
Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the largest amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better 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 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 video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second. Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.
Display Prices
Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.
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