GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 vs GeForce GTX 870M

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 870M, which uses a 28 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 941 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM runs at a speed of 1000 MHz on this model. It features 1344 SPUs along with 112 Texture Address Units and 24 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 870M		110 Watts
	Difference: 63 Watts (134%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 870M is 650% faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 in general, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 870M		96000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 83200 (650%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 870M is a lot (approximately 1120%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GTX 870M		105392 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 96752 (1120%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 870M is a lot (about 423%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2, and also should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 870M		22584 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 18264 (423%)

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 data (measured in MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card 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 a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs 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 fill rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.