GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 vs GeForce RTX 3060

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce RTX 3060, which uses a 8 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 1320 MHz. The GDDR6 memory runs at a frequency of 1875 MHz on this particular model. It features 3584 SPUs along with 112 Texture Address Units and 48 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		47 Watts
GeForce RTX 3060		170 Watts
	Difference: 123 Watts (262%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce RTX 3060 should perform much faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 overall. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3060		368640 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 346240 (1546%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce RTX 3060 is quite a bit (more or less 1611%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3060		147840 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 139200 (1611%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce RTX 3060 should be a lot (more or less 1367%) better at FSAA than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3, and also will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3060		63360 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 59040 (1367%)

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 maximum amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of 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 AA, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The better the texel rate, the better the video 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 most pixels the video card can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.