GeForce 6800 GT vs 8600 GS

Place in the ranking	1364	1271
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Power efficiency	0.36	0.39
Architecture	Tesla (2006−2010)	Curie (2003−2013)
GPU code name	G84	NV45
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	17 April 2007 (17 years ago)	8 June 2004 (20 years ago)

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	16	no data
Core clock speed	540 MHz	350 MHz
Number of transistors	289 million	222 million
Manufacturing process technology	80 nm	130 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	47 Watt	67 Watt
Texture fill rate	4.320	5.600
Floating-point processing power	0.03808 TFLOPS	no data
ROPs	8	16
TMUs	8	16

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Interface	PCIe 1.0 x16	PCIe 1.0 x16
Width	1-slot	1-slot
Supplementary power connectors	None	1x 6-pin

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory type	DDR2	GDDR3
Maximum RAM amount	512 MB	256 MB
Memory bus width	128 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	400 MHz	500 MHz
Memory bandwidth	12.8 GB/s	32 GB/s

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors

1x DVI, 1x VGA, 1x S-Video

2x DVI, 1x S-Video

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX	11.1 (10_0)	9.0c (9_3)
Shader Model	4.0	3.0
OpenGL	3.3	2.1
OpenCL	1.1	N/A
Vulkan	N/A	N/A
CUDA	1.1	-

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

8600 GS 0.24

6800 GT 0.37
+54.2%

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

8600 GS 91

6800 GT 142
+56%

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	0.24	0.37
Recency	17 April 2007	8 June 2004
Maximum RAM amount	512 MB	256 MB
Chip lithography	80 nm	130 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	47 Watt	67 Watt

8600 GS has an age advantage of 2 years, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 62.5% more advanced lithography process, and 42.6% lower power consumption.

6800 GT, on the other hand, has a 54.2% higher aggregate performance score.

The GeForce 6800 GT is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce 8600 GS in performance tests.

Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.