GeForce 840M vs GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, which uses a 80 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 540 MHz. The DDR2 memory runs at a speed of 400 MHz on this card. It features 32 SPUs along with 16 TAUs and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 840M		30 Watts
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
	Difference: 17 Watts (57%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce 840M is 25% faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce 840M		16000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 3200 (25%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 840M is a lot (approximately 186%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce 840M		24696 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 16056 (186%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce 840M is much (about 91%) better at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, and should be capable of handling higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce 840M		8232 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3912 (91%)

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 max amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 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 AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card 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 that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.