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GeForce 830M vs GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2

Intro

The GeForce 830M makes use of a 28 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 1029 MHz. The DDR3 memory runs at a speed of 900 MHz on this particular model. It features 256 SPUs as well as 16 Texture Address Units and 8 ROPs.

Compare those specifications to the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2, which makes use of a 80 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 540 MHz. The DDR2 RAM is set to run at a frequency of 400 MHz on this particular model. It features 32 SPUs along with 16 TAUs and 8 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 830M		25 Watts
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		47 Watts
	Difference: 22 Watts (88%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce 830M should theoretically perform just a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce 830M		14400 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 1600 (13%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 830M should be a lot (about 91%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce 830M		16464 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 7824 (91%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 830M is superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce 830M		8232 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3912 (91%)

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 830M

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GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2

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Specifications

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Model	GeForce 830M	GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2
Manufacturer	nVidia	nVidia
Year	March 12 2014	April 2007
Code Name	GM108	G84
Memory	2048 MB	256 MB
Core Speed	1029 MHz	540 MHz
Memory Speed	1800 MHz	800 MHz
Power (Max TDP)	25 watts	47 watts
Bandwidth	14400 MB/sec	12800 MB/sec
Texel Rate	16464 Mtexels/sec	8640 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate	8232 Mpixels/sec	4320 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders	256	32
Texture Mapping Units	16	16
Render Output Units	8	8
Bus Type	DDR3	DDR2
Bus Width	64-bit	128-bit
Fab Process	28 nm	80 nm
Transistors	(Unknown) million	289 million
Bus	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe x16
DirectX Version	DirectX 12	DirectX 10
OpenGL Version	OpenGL 4.5	OpenGL 3.0

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the max amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, the faster 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 are applied per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.

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