GeForce 7800 GTX 512 vs 8600 GTS

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Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the rankingnot ratednot rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
ArchitectureTesla (2006−2010)Curie (2003−2013)
GPU code nameG84G70
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Release date17 April 2007 (17 years ago)14 November 2005 (19 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$199 $649

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 cores32no data
Core clock speed675 MHz500 MHz
Number of transistors289 million302 million
Manufacturing process technology80 nm110 nm
Power consumption (TDP)60 Watt108 Watt
Texture fill rate10.8012.00
Floating-point processing power0.0928 TFLOPSno data
ROPs816
TMUs1624

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).

InterfacePCIe 1.0 x16PCIe 1.0 x16
Length198 mm228 mm
Width1-slot2-slot
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pinno data
SLI options+-

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 typeGDDR3GDDR3
Maximum RAM amount256 MB512 MB
Standard memory config per GPU256 MBno data
Memory bus width128 Bit256 Bit
Memory clock speed1000 MHz800 MHz
Memory bandwidth32 GB/s51.2 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 Connectors2x DVI, 1x S-Video2x DVI, 1x S-Video

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX11.1 (10_0)9.0c (9_3)
Shader Model4.03.0
OpenGL2.12.1
OpenCL1.1N/A
VulkanN/AN/A
CUDA1.1-

Pros & cons summary


Recency 17 April 2007 14 November 2005
Maximum RAM amount 256 MB 512 MB
Chip lithography 80 nm 110 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 60 Watt 108 Watt

8600 GTS has an age advantage of 1 year, a 37.5% more advanced lithography process, and 80% lower power consumption.

7800 GTX 512, on the other hand, has a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount.

We couldn't decide between GeForce 8600 GTS and GeForce 7800 GTX 512. 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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NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS
GeForce 8600 GTS
NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX 512
GeForce 7800 GTX 512

Comparisons with similar GPUs

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Community ratings

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3.2 199 votes

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Questions & comments

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