GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTX 970M

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 970M, which has a core clock speed of 924 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1000 MHz. It also features a 192-bit bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It is made up of 1280 SPUs, 80 Texture Address Units, and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 970M		75 Watts
	Difference: 28 Watts (60%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTX 970M should be much faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970M		96000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 73600 (329%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970M should be a lot (more or less 756%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970M		73920 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 65280 (756%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970M will be much (more or less 927%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3, and also should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970M		44352 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 40032 (927%)

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 across the external memory interface in a second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, 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 are applied per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video 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 the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the card's 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 is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.