GeForce 8800 GT 256MB vs GeForce GTX 950M

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 950M, which features core clock speeds of 914 MHz on the GPU, and 1000 MHz on the 2048 MB of DDR3 RAM. It features 640 SPUs as well as 40 Texture Address Units and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 950M		55 Watts
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		105 Watts
	Difference: 50 Watts (91%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB should be 40% faster than the GeForce GTX 950M in general, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		44800 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 950M		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 12800 (40%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 950M is just a bit (more or less 9%) better at AF than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 950M		36560 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2960 (9%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 950M will be much (about 52%) better at AA than the GeForce 8800 GT 256MB, and also will be capable of handling higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 950M		14624 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 256MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5024 (52%)

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 (in units of megabytes per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.