GeForce 825M vs GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, which makes use of a 80 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 540 MHz. The DDR2 memory works at a frequency of 400 MHz on this specific model. It features 32 SPUs along with 16 Texture Address Units and 8 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 825M		33 Watts
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
	Difference: 14 Watts (42%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce 825M should be 13% faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 overall, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce 825M		14400 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 1600 (13%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 825M is much (more or less 57%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce 825M		13600 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 4960 (57%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce 825M is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce 825M		6800 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2480 (57%)

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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR memory, the result 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 anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount 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 lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.