GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce GTX 950M

Intro

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

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 950M		55 Watts
GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
	Difference: 20 Watts (36%)

Memory Bandwidth

Both cards have the exact same memory bandwidth, so in theory they should perform the same. (explain)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 950M will be much (approximately 239%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GTS. (explain)

GeForce GTX 950M		36560 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 25760 (239%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 950M will be much (more or less 171%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GTS, and also should be able to handle higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 950M		14624 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9224 (171%)

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 max amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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