GeForce 8800 GT 512MB vs GeForce GTX 860M

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 860M, which makes use of a 28 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 797 MHz. The GDDR5 memory is set to run at a speed of 1000 MHz on this particular card. It features 1152 SPUs as well as 96 TAUs and 16 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 860M		45 Watts
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		105 Watts
	Difference: 60 Watts (133%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 860M should theoretically be a little bit better than the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		64000 MB/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		57600 MB/sec
	Difference: 6400 (11%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 860M should be a lot (about 128%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		76512 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		33600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 42912 (128%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 860M is superior to the GeForce 8800 GT 512MB, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		12752 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8800 GT 512MB		9600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3152 (33%)

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 information (counted in megabytes per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

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