GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB

Intro

Compare all that to the GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB, which features a core clock speed of 1260 MHz and a GDDR6X memory speed of 1188 MHz. It also makes use of a 384-bit memory bus, and uses a 8 nm design. It features 8960 SPUs, 280 Texture Address Units, and 112 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB		350 Watts
	Difference: 303 Watts (645%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB should in theory perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 overall. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB		934298 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 921498 (7199%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB is a lot (about 3983%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB		352800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 344160 (3983%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB will be much (approximately 3167%) more effective at AA than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, and capable of handling higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB		141120 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 136800 (3167%)

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 data (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate is also dependant on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.