ATI Radeon HD 3850 AGP vs NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GS

Comparative analysis of ATI Radeon HD 3850 AGP and NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GS videocards for all known characteristics in the following categories: Essentials, Technical info, Video outputs and ports, Compatibility, dimensions and requirements, API support, Memory. Benchmark videocards performance analysis: PassMark - G3D Mark, PassMark - G2D Mark, GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Frames), GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Fps).

ATI Radeon HD 3850 AGP

NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GS

Differences

Reasons to consider the ATI Radeon HD 3850 AGP

Videocard is newer: launch date 8 month(s) later
Around 24% higher core clock speed: 668 MHz vs 540 MHz
2.5x more texture fill rate: 10.69 GTexel / s vs 4.32 GTexel / s
20x more pipelines: 320 vs 16
11.2x better floating-point performance: 427.5 gflops vs 38.08 gflops
A newer manufacturing process allows for a more powerful, yet cooler running videocard: 55 nm vs 80 nm
2.1x more memory clock speed: 1656 MHz vs 800 MHz
4.7x better performance in PassMark - G3D Mark: 432 vs 92

Specifications (specs)
Launch date	3 January 2008 vs 17 April 2007
Core clock speed	668 MHz vs 540 MHz
Texture fill rate	10.69 GTexel / s vs 4.32 GTexel / s
Pipelines	320 vs 16
Floating-point performance	427.5 gflops vs 38.08 gflops
Manufacturing process technology	55 nm vs 80 nm
Memory clock speed	1656 MHz vs 800 MHz
Benchmarks
PassMark - G3D Mark	432 vs 92

Reasons to consider the NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GS

Around 60% lower typical power consumption: 47 Watt vs 75 Watt
Around 9% better performance in PassMark - G2D Mark: 100 vs 92

Specifications (specs)
Thermal Design Power (TDP)	47 Watt vs 75 Watt
Benchmarks
PassMark - G2D Mark	100 vs 92

Compare benchmarks

GPU 1: ATI Radeon HD 3850 AGP
GPU 2: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GS

PassMark - G3D Mark

GPU 1

GPU 2

432

PassMark - G2D Mark

GPU 1

GPU 2

100

Name	ATI Radeon HD 3850 AGP	NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GS
PassMark - G3D Mark	432	92
PassMark - G2D Mark	92	100
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Frames)	2417
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Fps)	2417

Compare specifications (specs)

	ATI Radeon HD 3850 AGP	NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GS
Essentials
Architecture	TeraScale	Tesla
Code name	RV670	G84
Launch date	3 January 2008	17 April 2007
Place in performance rating	1375	1376
Type	Desktop	Desktop
Technical info
Core clock speed	668 MHz	540 MHz
Floating-point performance	427.5 gflops	38.08 gflops
Manufacturing process technology	55 nm	80 nm
Pipelines	320	16
Texture fill rate	10.69 GTexel / s	4.32 GTexel / s
Thermal Design Power (TDP)	75 Watt	47 Watt
Transistor count	666 million	289 million
Video outputs and ports
Display Connectors	2x DVI, 1x S-Video	1x DVI, 1x VGA, 1x S-Video
Compatibility, dimensions and requirements
Interface	AGP 8x	PCIe 1.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors	1x 8-pin	None
API support
DirectX	10.0	10.0
OpenGL	3.3	3.3
Memory
Maximum RAM amount	512 MB	512 MB
Memory bandwidth	53.0 GB / s	12.8 GB / s
Memory bus width	256 Bit	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	1656 MHz	800 MHz
Memory type	GDDR3	DDR2