GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce RTX 3090

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce RTX 3090, which features a GPU core clock speed of 1395 MHz, and 24576 MB of GDDR6X RAM running at 1219 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also is made up of 10496 SPUs, 328 Texture Address Units, and 112 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce RTX 3090		350 Watts
	Difference: 303 Watts (645%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce RTX 3090 should theoretically be quite a bit superior to the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3090		958668 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 945868 (7390%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce RTX 3090 will be much (approximately 5196%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3090		457560 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 448920 (5196%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce RTX 3090 will be a lot (approximately 3517%) better at AA than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, and also will be capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3090		156240 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		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: Memory bandwidth is the max amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once 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, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the video card could possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.