GeForce 8600 GTS vs GeForce GTX 1060 3GB

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, which features core speeds of 1506 MHz on the GPU, and 2000 MHz on the 3072 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 1152 SPUs as well as 72 TAUs and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GTS		75 Watts
GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		120 Watts
	Difference: 45 Watts (60%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, in theory, should be a lot faster than the GeForce 8600 GTS in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		196608 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		32000 MB/sec
	Difference: 164608 (514%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1060 3GB is quite a bit (approximately 904%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8600 GTS. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		108432 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		10800 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 97632 (904%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1060 3GB is quite a bit (about 1239%) better at FSAA than the GeForce 8600 GTS, and also will be capable of handling higher resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		72288 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GTS		5400 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 66888 (1239%)

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 maximum amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. It's worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the 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 maximum number of pixels that the graphics card could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out 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 is also dependant on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.