GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 vs GeForce GTX 850M

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 850M, which comes with GPU clock speed of 876 MHz, and 2048 MB of DDR3 memory set to run at 1000 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 640 SPUs, 40 TAUs, and 16 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 850M		40 Watts
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		47 Watts
	Difference: 7 Watts (18%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 850M should in theory be a lot superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 850M		32000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 19200 (150%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 850M will be quite a bit (approximately 306%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GTX 850M		35040 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 26400 (306%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 850M is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 850M		14016 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9696 (224%)

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 (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total amount of texture units 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 per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units 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 fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.