GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTX 1080

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 1080, which uses a 16 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 1607 MHz. The GDDR5X RAM is set to run at a speed of 1251 MHz on this specific model. It features 2560 SPUs along with 160 TAUs and 64 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 1080		180 Watts
	Difference: 133 Watts (283%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 1080 should theoretically be a lot better than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1080		327680 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 305280 (1363%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1080 should be quite a bit (about 2876%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1080		257120 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 248480 (2876%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 1080 is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1080		102848 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 98528 (2281%)

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: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.