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GeForce 840M vs GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2

Intro

The GeForce 840M uses a 28 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 1029 MHz. The DDR3 memory works at a frequency of 1000 MHz on this specific model. It features 384 SPUs along with 24 Texture Address Units and 8 Rasterization Operator Units.

Compare those specs to the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2, which uses a 80 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 540 MHz. The DDR2 RAM is set to run at a frequency of 400 MHz on this card. It features 32 SPUs along with 16 Texture Address Units and 8 ROPs.

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 840M		30 Watts
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		47 Watts
	Difference: 17 Watts (57%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 840M should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce 840M		16000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 3200 (25%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 840M is a lot (approximately 186%) better at AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce 840M		24696 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 16056 (186%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 840M should be much (more or less 91%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2, and also able to handle higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce 840M		8232 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB 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 840M

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GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2

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Specifications

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Model	GeForce 840M	GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2
Manufacturer	nVidia	nVidia
Year	March 12 2014	April 2007
Code Name	GM108	G84
Memory	2048 MB	1024 MB
Core Speed	1029 MHz	540 MHz
Memory Speed	2000 MHz	800 MHz
Power (Max TDP)	30 watts	47 watts
Bandwidth	16000 MB/sec	12800 MB/sec
Texel Rate	24696 Mtexels/sec	8640 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate	8232 Mpixels/sec	4320 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders	384	32
Texture Mapping Units	24	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 maximum amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus 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 better the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the 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 clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.

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