GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce GTX 1060

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 1060, which has a GPU core clock speed of 1506 MHz, and 6144 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 2000 MHz through a 192-bit bus. It also features 1280 Stream Processors, 80 TAUs, 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		120 Watts
	Difference: 73 Watts (155%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 1060 should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1060 will be a lot (about 1294%) better at AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060		120480 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 111840 (1294%)

Pixel Rate

If running with high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 1060 is superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060		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 (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 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 high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card can possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core 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 fill rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the maximum fill rate.