GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce GTX 860M

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 860M, which comes with a core clock speed of 797 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1000 MHz. It also features a 128-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 1152 SPUs, 96 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 860M		45 Watts
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
	Difference: 2 Watts (4%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 860M should in theory be much faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		64000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 51200 (400%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 860M is much (more or less 786%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		76512 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 67872 (786%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 860M is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		12752 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 8432 (195%)

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 largest amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory in a 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 clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.