GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce GTX 950M

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 950M, which comes with GPU core speed of 914 MHz, and 2048 MB of DDR3 RAM running at 1000 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is comprised of 640 SPUs, 40 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 950M		55 Watts
GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
	Difference: 20 Watts (36%)

Memory Bandwidth

Both cards have exactly the same bandwidth, so theoretically they should have identical performance. (explain)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 950M will be much (about 239%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8600 GTS. (explain)

GeForce GTX 950M		36560 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 25760 (239%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 950M is superior to the GeForce 8600 GTS, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 950M		14624 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 9224 (171%)

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 MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR memory, the result 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, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated 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 outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.