GeForce 8600 GT Mac Edition vs 9500 GT
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 | G96 | G84 |
| Market segment | Desktop | Desktop |
| Release date | 29 July 2008 (16 years ago) | 17 April 2007 (17 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $85.99 | $159 |
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 | 32 |
| Core clock speed | 550 MHz | 600 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 314 million | 289 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 65 nm | 80 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 50 Watt | 47 Watt |
| Maximum GPU temperature | 105 °C | no data |
| Texture fill rate | 9.600 | 9.600 |
| Floating-point processing power | 0.096 TFLOPS | 0.0928 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 8 | 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 2.0 x16 | PCIe 1.0 x16 |
| Length | 175 mm | 170 mm |
| Height | 4.376" (11.1 cm) | no data |
| Width | 1-slot | 1-slot |
| Supplementary power connectors | None | 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 | GDDR3 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 1 GB | 128 MB |
| Memory bus width | 128 Bit | 128 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 800 (GDDR3) and 500 (DDR2) MHz | 750 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 25.6 (GDDR3) and 16.0 (DDR2) | 24 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 | Dual Link DVISingle Link DVI | 2x DVI |
| Multi monitor support | + | no data |
| HDMI | + | - |
| Maximum VGA resolution | 2048x1536 | no data |
| Audio input for HDMI | S/PDIF | no data |
API compatibility
List of supported 3D 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 | 2.1 | 3.3 |
| OpenCL | 1.1 | 1.1 |
| Vulkan | N/A | N/A |
| CUDA | + | 1.1 |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 29 July 2008 | 17 April 2007 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 1 GB | 128 MB |
| Chip lithography | 65 nm | 80 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 50 Watt | 47 Watt |
9500 GT has an age advantage of 1 year, a 700% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 23.1% more advanced lithography process.
8600 GT Mac Edition, on the other hand, has 6.4% lower power consumption.
We couldn't decide between GeForce 9500 GT and GeForce 8600 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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