GeForce 810M vs GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2, which makes use of a 80 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 540 MHz. The DDR2 memory runs at a frequency of 400 MHz on this specific card. It features 32 SPUs as well as 16 TAUs and 8 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 810M		15 Watts
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		47 Watts
	Difference: 32 Watts (213%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce 810M is 13% faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 overall, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce 810M		14400 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 1600 (13%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 is a lot (approximately 46%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 810M. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 810M		5904 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2736 (46%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2 is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 810M		2952 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 1368 (46%)

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 max amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.