GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce GT 230

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GT 230, which has core speeds of 550 MHz on the GPU, and 800 MHz on the 1536 MB of DDR3 memory. It features 32 SPUs along with 16 Texture Address Units and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 230		65 Watts
GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
	Difference: 10 Watts (15%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GT 230 should theoretically be just a bit better than the GeForce 8600 GTS overall. (explain)

GeForce GT 230		38400 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (20%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GTS should be quite a bit (more or less 23%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GT 230. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 230		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2000 (23%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GTS is quite a bit (more or less 23%) better at FSAA than the GeForce GT 230, and should be able to handle higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 230		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: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This is worked out 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 handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel 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.