GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 vs GeForce GT 1030

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GT 1030, which comes with GPU core speed of 1265 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory set to run at 1502 MHz through a 64-bit bus. It also is comprised of 384 SPUs, 32 Texture Address Units, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GT 1030		30 Watts
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		47 Watts
	Difference: 17 Watts (57%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GT 1030 should perform a lot faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 1030		49152 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 36352 (284%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GT 1030 is much (approximately 369%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GT 1030		40480 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB 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 1GB DDR2, and will be able to handle higher screen resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GT 1030		20240 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB 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: Bandwidth is the largest amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

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