GeForce 8600 GTS vs ATI Radeon X1900 XTX
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 | R500 (2005−2007) | Tesla (2006−2010) |
| GPU code name | R580 | G84 |
| Market segment | Desktop | Desktop |
| Release date | 24 January 2006 (18 years ago) | 17 April 2007 (17 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $399 | $199 |
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 | no data | 32 |
| Core clock speed | 650 MHz | 675 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 384 million | 289 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 90 nm | 80 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 135 Watt | 60 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 10.40 | 10.80 |
| Floating-point processing power | no data | 0.0928 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 16 | 8 |
| TMUs | 16 | 16 |
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 | 242 mm | 198 mm |
| Width | 2-slot | 1-slot |
| Supplementary power connectors | 1x 6-pin | 1x 6-pin |
| 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 | GDDR3 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 512 MB | 256 MB |
| Standard memory config per GPU | no data | 256 MB |
| Memory bus width | 256 Bit | 128 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 775 MHz | 1000 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 49.6 GB/s | 32 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 | 2x DVI, 1x S-Video |
API compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 9.0c (9_3) | 11.1 (10_0) |
| Shader Model | 3.0 | 4.0 |
| OpenGL | 2.1 (full) 3.0 (partial) | 2.1 |
| OpenCL | N/A | 1.1 |
| Vulkan | N/A | N/A |
| CUDA | - | 1.1 |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 24 January 2006 | 17 April 2007 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 512 MB | 256 MB |
| Chip lithography | 90 nm | 80 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 135 Watt | 60 Watt |
ATI X1900 XTX has a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount.
8600 GTS, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 1 year, a 12.5% more advanced lithography process, and 125% lower power consumption.
We couldn't decide between Radeon X1900 XTX and GeForce 8600 GTS. 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.
Comparisons with similar GPUs
We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.
