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GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTX 970M

Intro

The GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 uses a 80 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 540 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM works at a frequency of 700 MHz on this particular model. It features 32 SPUs as well as 16 Texture Address Units and 8 ROPs.

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 970M, which uses a 28 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 924 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a speed of 1000 MHz on this card. It features 1280 SPUs along with 80 Texture Address Units and 48 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 47 Watts
GeForce GTX 970M 75 Watts
Difference: 28 Watts (60%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 970M will be 329% quicker than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 overall, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970M 96000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 22400 MB/sec
Difference: 73600 (329%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970M should be much (approximately 756%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970M 73920 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 8640 Mtexels/sec
Difference: 65280 (756%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970M is a lot (more or less 927%) faster with regards to AA than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3, and capable of handling higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970M 44352 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 4320 Mpixels/sec
Difference: 40032 (927%)

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

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GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3

Amazon.com

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GeForce GTX 970M

Amazon.com

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Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

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Model GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 GeForce GTX 970M
Manufacturer nVidia nVidia
Year April 2007 October 7 2014
Code Name G84 GM204
Memory 1024 MB 3072 MB
Core Speed 540 MHz 924 MHz
Memory Speed 1400 MHz 4000 MHz
Power (Max TDP) 47 watts 75 watts
Bandwidth 22400 MB/sec 96000 MB/sec
Texel Rate 8640 Mtexels/sec 73920 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate 4320 Mpixels/sec 44352 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders 32 1280
Texture Mapping Units 16 80
Render Output Units 8 48
Bus Type GDDR3 GDDR5
Bus Width 128-bit 192-bit
Fab Process 80 nm 28 nm
Transistors 289 million (Unknown) million
Bus PCIe x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
DirectX Version DirectX 10 DirectX 12
OpenGL Version OpenGL 3.0 OpenGL 4.5

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the largest amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock 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 applied in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.

Display Prices

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GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

GeForce GTX 970M

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

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