ATI Radeon X550 vs GeForce 8600 GTS

Place in the ranking	1251	1433
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	0.01	no data
Power efficiency	0.47	no data
Architecture	Tesla (2006−2010)	Rage 9 (2003−2006)
GPU code name	G84	RV370
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	17 April 2007 (17 years ago)	1 July 2005 (19 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$199	no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

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	32	no data
Core clock speed	675 MHz	400 MHz
Number of transistors	289 million	107 million
Manufacturing process technology	80 nm	110 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	60 Watt	no data
Texture fill rate	10.80	1.600
Floating-point processing power	0.0928 TFLOPS	no data
ROPs	8	4
TMUs	16	4

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 1.0 x16
Length	198 mm	no data
Width	1-slot	1-slot
Supplementary power connectors	1x 6-pin	None
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 type	GDDR3	DDR
Maximum RAM amount	256 MB	128 MB
Standard memory config per GPU	256 MB	no data
Memory bus width	128 Bit	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	1000 MHz	250 MHz
Memory bandwidth	32 GB/s	8 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

2x DVI, 1x S-Video

1x DVI, 1x VGA, 1x S-Video

API compatibility

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

DirectX	11.1 (10_0)	9.0
Shader Model	4.0	no data
OpenGL	2.1	2.0
OpenCL	1.1	N/A
Vulkan	N/A	N/A
CUDA	1.1	-

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

8600 GTS 0.41
+215%

ATI X550 0.13

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

8600 GTS 158
+216%

ATI X550 50

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	0.41	0.13
Recency	17 April 2007	1 July 2005
Maximum RAM amount	256 MB	128 MB
Chip lithography	80 nm	110 nm

8600 GTS has a 215.4% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 1 year, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 37.5% more advanced lithography process.

The GeForce 8600 GTS is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon X550 in performance tests.

Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.