GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 vs GeForce GT 1030

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GT 1030, which comes with core clock speeds of 1265 MHz on the GPU, and 1502 MHz on the 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 384 SPUs along with 32 Texture Address Units and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 1030		30 Watts
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		47 Watts
	Difference: 17 Watts (57%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GT 1030 should in theory be much superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 1030		49152 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 36352 (284%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 1030 will be quite a bit (more or less 369%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GT 1030		40480 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 31840 (369%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 1030 will be quite a bit (more or less 369%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2, and also should be able to handle higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GT 1030		20240 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 15920 (369%)

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 (in units of MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.