GeForce 8800 GT 256MB vs GeForce GTX 850M

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 850M, which features GPU core speed of 876 MHz, and 2048 MB of DDR3 memory set to run at 1000 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also features 640 Stream Processors, 40 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 850M		40 Watts
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		105 Watts
	Difference: 65 Watts (163%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB should be 40% faster than the GeForce GTX 850M overall, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		44800 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 850M		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 12800 (40%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 850M should be a small bit (more or less 4%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 850M		35040 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 1440 (4%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 850M is much (more or less 46%) better at FSAA than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB, and also able to handle higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 850M		14016 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 4416 (46%)

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 maximum amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the graphics card will be at handling 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 write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core 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 output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.