GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 vs GeForce RTX 3090

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce RTX 3090, which features a GPU core clock speed of 1395 MHz, and 24576 MB of GDDR6X RAM set to run at 1219 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also is made up of 10496 Stream Processors, 328 Texture Address Units, and 112 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		47 Watts
GeForce RTX 3090		350 Watts
	Difference: 303 Watts (645%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce RTX 3090 should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 in general. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3090		958668 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 936268 (4180%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce RTX 3090 is quite a bit (more or less 5196%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3090		457560 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 448920 (5196%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce RTX 3090 is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3090		156240 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 151920 (3517%)

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 max amount of information (counted in MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's 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 processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.