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

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, which comes with core speeds of 1506 MHz on the GPU, and 2000 MHz on the 3072 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 1152 SPUs along with 72 TAUs and 48 Rasterization Operator Units.

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

The GeForce GTX 1060 3GB should theoretically be quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 overall. (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 should be a lot (more or less 1155%) faster with regards to 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

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB is a better choice, by a large margin. (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 largest amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.