GeForce GTX 860M vs GeForce GTX 950M

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 950M, which features GPU core speed of 914 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 Texture Address Units, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Benchmarks

These are real-world performance benchmarks that were submitted by Hardware Compare users. The scores seen here are the average of all benchmarks submitted for each respective test and hardware.

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score

GeForce GTX 860M		4340 points
GeForce GTX 950M		3330 points
	Difference: 1010 (30%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 860M		45 Watts
GeForce GTX 950M		55 Watts
	Difference: 10 Watts (22%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 860M should perform much faster than the GeForce GTX 950M overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		64000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 950M		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 32000 (100%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 860M will be much (more or less 109%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 950M. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		76512 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 950M		36560 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 39952 (109%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 950M is a small bit (more or less 15%) more effective at full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 860M, and should be capable of handling higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 950M		14624 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 860M		12752 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1872 (15%)

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 maximum amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.