GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 vs GeForce 930M

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce 930M, which features a clock speed of 928 MHz and a DDR3 memory frequency of 900 MHz. It also uses a 64-bit bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It features 384 SPUs, 24 TAUs, and 8 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 should be a lot faster than the GeForce 930M overall. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
GeForce 930M		14400 MB/sec
	Difference: 8000 (56%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 930M should be much (about 158%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce 930M		22272 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 13632 (158%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce 930M is a better choice, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce 930M		7424 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3104 (72%)

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 information (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.