AMD Radeon HD 6870 X2 vs NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS

Comparative analysis of AMD Radeon HD 6870 X2 and NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS videocards for all known characteristics in the following categories: Essentials, Technical info, Video outputs and ports, Compatibility, dimensions and requirements, API support, Memory, Technologies. Benchmark videocards performance analysis: CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - T-Rex (Frames/s), PassMark - G3D Mark, PassMark - G2D Mark, GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Frames), GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Fps), GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Frames), GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Fps).

AMD Radeon HD 6870 X2

NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS

Differences

Reasons to consider the AMD Radeon HD 6870 X2

Videocard is newer: launch date 4 year(s) 2 month(s) later
Around 33% higher core clock speed: 900 MHz vs 675 MHz
23.2x more texture fill rate: 2x 50.4 GTexel / s billion / sec vs 10.8 billion / sec
70x more pipelines: 2x 1120 vs 32
43.4x better floating-point performance: 2x 2,016.0 gflops vs 92.8 gflops
A newer manufacturing process allows for a more powerful, yet cooler running videocard: 40 nm vs 80 nm
8x more maximum memory size: 2x 1 GB vs 256 MB
4.2x more memory clock speed: 4200 MHz vs 1000 MHz

Launch date	8 July 2011 vs 17 April 2007
Core clock speed	900 MHz vs 675 MHz
Texture fill rate	2x 50.4 GTexel / s billion / sec vs 10.8 billion / sec
Pipelines	2x 1120 vs 32
Floating-point performance	2x 2,016.0 gflops vs 92.8 gflops
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm vs 80 nm
Maximum memory size	2x 1 GB vs 256 MB
Memory clock speed	4200 MHz vs 1000 MHz

Reasons to consider the NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS

5x lower typical power consumption: 60 Watt vs 300 Watt

Thermal Design Power (TDP)	60 Watt vs 300 Watt

Compare benchmarks

GPU 1: AMD Radeon HD 6870 X2
GPU 2: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS

Name	AMD Radeon HD 6870 X2	NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - T-Rex (Frames/s)	1.807
PassMark - G3D Mark		170
PassMark - G2D Mark		26
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Frames)		10
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Fps)		10
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Frames)		1728
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Fps)		1728

Compare specifications (specs)

	AMD Radeon HD 6870 X2	NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS
Essentials
Architecture	TeraScale 2	Tesla
Code name	Barts	G84
Launch date	8 July 2011	17 April 2007
Launch price (MSRP)	$520	$199
Place in performance rating	1613	1539
Type	Desktop	Desktop
Technical info
Core clock speed	900 MHz	675 MHz
Floating-point performance	2x 2,016.0 gflops	92.8 gflops
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm	80 nm
Pipelines	2x 1120	32
Texture fill rate	2x 50.4 GTexel / s billion / sec	10.8 billion / sec
Thermal Design Power (TDP)	300 Watt	60 Watt
Transistor count	1,700 million	289 million
Video outputs and ports
Display Connectors	2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort	2x DVI, 1x S-Video
Compatibility, dimensions and requirements
Interface	PCIe 2.0 x16	PCIe 1.0 x16
Length	304 mm	198 mm
Supplementary power connectors		1x 6-pin
API support
DirectX	11.2 (11_0)	10.0
OpenGL	4.4	2.1
Memory
Maximum RAM amount	2x 1 GB	256 MB
Memory bandwidth	2x 134.4 GB / s	32 GB / s
Memory bus width	2x 256 Bit	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	4200 MHz	1000 MHz
Memory type	GDDR5	GDDR3
Standard memory config per GPU		256 MB
Technologies
SLI