GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs GeForce GT 1030

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GT 1030, which features core clock speeds of 1265 MHz on the GPU, and 1502 MHz on the 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM. 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 512MB GDDR3		47 Watts
	Difference: 17 Watts (57%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GT 1030 should theoretically be much superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 1030		49152 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 26752 (119%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 1030 will be much (about 369%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GT 1030		40480 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 31840 (369%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GT 1030 will be much (about 369%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3, and will be capable of handling higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GT 1030		20240 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		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 megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This figure is worked out 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 most pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.