GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce GTX 1060 3GB

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, which comes with clock speeds of 1506 MHz on the GPU, and 2000 MHz on the 3072 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 1152 SPUs as well as 72 Texture Address Units and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		120 Watts
	Difference: 73 Watts (155%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB should perform a lot faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		196608 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 183808 (1436%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1060 3GB is a lot (approximately 1155%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		108432 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 99792 (1155%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1060 3GB will be a lot (about 1573%) faster with regards to full screen anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, and also should be able to handle higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		72288 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 67968 (1573%)

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 data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.