GeForce 830M vs GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3, which uses a 80 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 540 MHz. The GDDR3 RAM works at a speed of 700 MHz on this particular model. It features 32 SPUs as well as 16 Texture Address Units and 8 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 830M		25 Watts
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		47 Watts
	Difference: 22 Watts (88%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce 830M overall. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
GeForce 830M		14400 MB/sec
	Difference: 8000 (56%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 830M is much (more or less 91%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce 830M		16464 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 7824 (91%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 830M will be quite a bit (about 91%) better at FSAA than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3, and also capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce 830M		8232 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		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

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics 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 number of pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.