GeForce GT 230 vs GeForce GTX 850M

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 850M, which comes with core clock speeds of 876 MHz on the GPU, and 1000 MHz on the 2048 MB of DDR3 memory. It features 640 SPUs along with 40 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 850M		40 Watts
GeForce GT 230		65 Watts
	Difference: 25 Watts (63%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GT 230 should perform just a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 850M in general. (explain)

GeForce GT 230		38400 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 850M		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (20%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 850M is much (more or less 298%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GT 230. (explain)

GeForce GTX 850M		35040 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GT 230		8800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 26240 (298%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 850M should be quite a bit (about 219%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GT 230, and will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce GTX 850M		14016 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GT 230		4400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9616 (219%)

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 largest amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better 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 texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, 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 amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.