In terms of overall gaming performance, the graphical capabilities of the Nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB are marginally better than the Intel HD Graphics 510 Desktop.

The 8600 GTS has a 325 MHz higher core clock speed and 8 more Texture Mapping Units than the Graphics 510. This results in the 8600 GTS providing 8 GTexel/s better texturing performance. This still holds weight but shader performance is generally more relevant, particularly since both of these GPUs support at least DirectX 10.

The 8600 GTS has a 325 MHz higher core clock speed and 4 more Render Output Units than the Graphics 510. This results in the 8600 GTS providing 4 GPixel/s better pixeling performance. However, both GPUs support DirectX 9 or above, and pixeling performance is only really relevant when comparing older cards.

The Graphics 510 was released over three years more recently than the 8600 GTS, and so the Graphics 510 is likely to have far better driver support, meaning it will be much more optimized and ultimately superior to the 8600 GTS when running the latest games.

The 8600 GTS has 256 MB video memory, but the Graphics 510 does not have an entry, so the two GPUs cannot be reliably compared in this area.

The HD Graphics 510 Desktop has 12 Shader Processing Units and the GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB has 32. However, the actual shader performance of the Graphics 510 is 101 and the actual shader performance of the 8600 GTS is 54. The Graphics 510 having 47 better shader performance is not particularly notable, as altogether the 8600 GTS performs better when taking into account other relevant data.

The Graphics 510 transistor size technology is 66 nm (nanometers) smaller than the 8600 GTS. This means that the Graphics 510 is expected to run massively cooler and achieve higher clock frequencies than the 8600 GTS. While they exhibit similar graphical performance, the Graphics 510 should consume less power than the 8600 GTS.

The HD Graphics 510 Desktop requires 47 Watts to run and the GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB requires 75 Watts. We would recommend a PSU with at least 300 Watts for the Graphics 510 and a PSU with at least 350 Watts for the 8600 GTS. The 8600 GTS requires 28 Watts more than the Graphics 510 to run. The difference is not significant enough for the 8600 GTS to have a noticeably larger impact on your yearly electricity bills than the Graphics 510.