GeForce 8500 GT vs GeForce RTX 3060

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce RTX 3060, which makes use of a 8 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 1320 MHz. The GDDR6 memory is set to run at a speed of 1875 MHz on this card. It features 3584 SPUs as well as 112 TAUs and 48 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8500 GT		45 Watts
GeForce RTX 3060		170 Watts
	Difference: 125 Watts (278%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce RTX 3060, in theory, should be much faster than the GeForce 8500 GT in general. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3060		368640 MB/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 355840 (2780%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce RTX 3060 should be much (approximately 4007%) more effective at AF than the GeForce 8500 GT. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3060		147840 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		3600 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 144240 (4007%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce RTX 3060 is the winner, and very much so. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3060		63360 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8500 GT		1800 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 61560 (3420%)

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 data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in a second. The number is 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 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, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.