GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 vs GeForce RTX 4090

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce RTX 4090, which features a GPU core clock speed of 2235 MHz, and 24576 MB of GDDR6X RAM running at 1325 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also is made up of 16384 Stream Processors, 512 Texture Address Units, and 176 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		47 Watts
GeForce RTX 4090		450 Watts
	Difference: 403 Watts (857%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce RTX 4090 should in theory be quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3 overall. (explain)

GeForce RTX 4090		1042432 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		22400 MB/sec
	Difference: 1020032 (4554%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce RTX 4090 will be much (more or less 13144%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3. (explain)

GeForce RTX 4090		1144320 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 1135680 (13144%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce RTX 4090 is a better choice, by far. (explain)

GeForce RTX 4090		393360 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 1GB GDDR3		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 389040 (9006%)

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 information (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

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