GeForce 9600 GT Mac Edition vs 8600 GS
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | not rated | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Architecture | Tesla (2006−2010) | Tesla (2006−2010) |
| GPU code name | G84 | G94 |
| Market segment | Desktop | Desktop |
| Release date | 17 April 2007 (17 years ago) | 22 December 2008 (15 years ago) |
Detailed specifications
General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.
| Pipelines / CUDA cores | 16 | 64 |
| Core clock speed | 540 MHz | 600 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 289 million | 505 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 80 nm | 65 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 47 Watt | 95 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 4.320 | 19.20 |
| Floating-point processing power | 0.03808 gflops | 0.192 gflops |
| ROPs | 8 | 16 |
| TMUs | 8 | 32 |
Form factor & compatibility
Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).
| Interface | PCIe 1.0 x16 | PCIe 2.0 x16 |
| Length | no data | 229 mm |
| Width | 1-slot | 1-slot |
| Supplementary power connectors | None | 1x 6-pin |
VRAM capacity and type
Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.
| Memory type | DDR2 | DDR2 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 512 MB | 1 GB |
| Memory bus width | 128 Bit | 256 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 800 MHz | 532 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 12.8 GB/s | 17.02 GB/s |
Connectivity and outputs
Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.
| Display Connectors | 1x DVI, 1x VGA, 1x S-Video | 2x DVI |
API compatibility
List of supported graphics and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 11.1 (10_0) | 11.1 (10_0) |
| Shader Model | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| OpenGL | 3.3 | 3.3 |
| OpenCL | 1.1 | 1.1 |
| Vulkan | N/A | N/A |
| CUDA | 1.1 | 1.1 |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 17 April 2007 | 22 December 2008 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 512 MB | 1 GB |
| Chip lithography | 80 nm | 65 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 47 Watt | 95 Watt |
8600 GS has 102.1% lower power consumption.
9600 GT Mac Edition, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 1 year, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 23.1% more advanced lithography process.
We couldn't decide between GeForce 8600 GS and GeForce 9600 GT Mac Edition. We've got no test results to judge.
Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
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