GeForce 8800 GT 256MB vs GeForce GTX 860M

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 860M, which features a GPU core clock speed of 797 MHz, and 4096 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 1000 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is comprised of 1152 SPUs, 96 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 860M		45 Watts
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		105 Watts
	Difference: 60 Watts (133%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTX 860M should be a lot faster than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		64000 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		44800 MB/sec
	Difference: 19200 (43%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 860M is much (more or less 128%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		76512 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 42912 (128%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 860M will be quite a bit (approximately 33%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB, and should be able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		12752 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3152 (33%)

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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video 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 most pixels the video card could possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.