GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 vs GeForce GTX 1080

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 1080, which uses a 16 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 1607 MHz. The GDDR5X RAM runs at a frequency of 1251 MHz on this particular model. It features 2560 SPUs along with 160 Texture Address Units and 64 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB 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 quite a bit better than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1080		327680 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 305280 (1363%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1080 is quite a bit (more or less 2876%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1080		257120 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 248480 (2876%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution 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 1GB 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 maximum amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the card's 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 texture map elements (texels) that are applied per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure 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 filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.