305M vs 8600M GT

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General info

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in performance rankingnot ratednot rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
ArchitectureG8x (2007−2008)GT2xx (2009−2012)
GPU code nameG84Mn11m-lp1
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date9 June 2007 (16 years old)10 January 2010 (14 years old)
Current price$414 $163

Technical specs

General performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider their benchmark and gaming test results. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores3216
CUDA coresno data16
Core clock speed475 MHz525 MHz
Number of transistors289 million260 million
Manufacturing process technology80 nm40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)20 Watt14 Watt
Texture fill rate7.6004.200
Floating-point performance60.8 gflops36.8 gflops
Gigaflopsno data55

Size and compatibility

Information on GeForce 8600M GT and GeForce 305M compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For notebook video cards it's notebook size, connection slot and bus, if the video card is inserted into a slot instead of being soldered to the notebook motherboard.

Laptop sizemedium sizedno data
Bus supportno dataPCI-E 2.0
InterfaceMXM-IIPCIe 2.0 x16

Memory

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory typeGDDR3, GDDR2GDDR2, GDDR3, DDR2, DDR3
Maximum RAM amount512 MBUp to 512 MB
Memory bus width128 Bit64 Bit
Memory clock speed700 MHzUp to 700 (DDR3), Up to 700 (GDDR3) MHz
Memory bandwidth12.8 GB/s11.2 GB/s
Shared memory--

Video outputs and ports

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display ConnectorsNo outputsDisplayPortHDMIVGADual Link DVISingle Link DVI
Multi monitor supportno data+
HDMIno data+
Maximum VGA resolutionno data2048x1536

Technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

Power managementno data8.0

API support

List of supported graphics and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX11.1 (10_0)11.1 (10_1)
Shader Model4.04.1
OpenGL3.32.1
OpenCL1.11.1
VulkanN/AN/A
CUDA1.1+

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark performance comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.


Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark, part of Passmark PerformanceTest suite. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

Benchmark coverage: 25%

8600M GT 89
GeForce 305M 150
+68.5%

305M outperforms 8600M GT by 69% in Passmark.

Advantages and disadvantages


Recency 9 June 2007 10 January 2010
Chip lithography 80 nm 40 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 20 Watt 14 Watt

We couldn't decide between GeForce 8600M GT and GeForce 305M. We've got no test results to judge.


Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

User ratings

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite graphics card.


NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT
GeForce 8600M GT
NVIDIA GeForce 305M
GeForce 305M

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3.5 22 votes

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2.5 4 votes

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Questions and comments

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