GeForce 825M vs GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, which comes with a clock frequency of 540 MHz and a DDR2 memory frequency of 400 MHz. It also features a 128-bit memory bus, and uses a 80 nm design. It is made up of 32 SPUs, 16 TAUs, and 8 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 825M		33 Watts
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
	Difference: 14 Watts (42%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce 825M should in theory be just a bit better than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce 825M		14400 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 1600 (13%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 825M is quite a bit (approximately 57%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce 825M		13600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 4960 (57%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce 825M is superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, by far. (explain)

GeForce 825M		6800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2480 (57%)

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 (measured in MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the 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 video card could possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.