GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 vs GeForce 940M

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce 940M, which has GPU core speed of 1072 MHz, and 2048 MB of DDR3 RAM running at 1000 MHz through a 64-bit bus. It also is comprised of 384 Stream Processors, 24 TAUs, and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce 940M should theoretically be quite a bit better than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 overall. (explain)

GeForce 940M		16000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 3200 (25%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 940M will be quite a bit (about 198%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce 940M		25728 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 17088 (198%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 940M should be a lot (more or less 99%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2, and also will be capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce 940M		8576 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4256 (99%)

Please note that the above 'benchmarks' are all just theoretical - the results were calculated based on the card's specifications, and real-world performance may (and probably will) vary at least a bit.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the largest amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.