GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q 3 GB vs 8600 GT

Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the rankingnot ratednot rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
ArchitectureTesla (2006−2010)Pascal (2016−2021)
GPU code nameG84GP106
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Release date17 April 2007 (17 years ago)27 June 2017 (7 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$159 no data

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 cores321280
Core clock speed540 MHz1265 MHz
Boost clock speedno data1480 MHz
Number of transistors289 million4,400 million
Manufacturing process technology80 nm16 nm
Power consumption (TDP)47 Watt80 Watt
Texture fill rate8.640118.4
Floating-point processing power0.07616 TFLOPSno data
ROPs848
TMUs1680

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).

InterfacePCIe 1.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x16
Length170 mmno data
Width1-slotno data
Supplementary power connectorsNoneNone
SLI options+-

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 typeGDDR3GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount512 MB3 GB
Standard memory config per GPU256 MBno data
Memory bus width128 Bit192 Bit
Memory clock speed700 MHz8008 MHz
Memory bandwidth22.4 GB/s192.2 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 Connectors2x DVI, 1x S-Videono data

API compatibility

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

DirectX11.1 (10_0)12.0
Shader Model4.05.0
OpenGL2.14.5
OpenCL1.11.2
VulkanN/A-
CUDA1.16.1

Pros & cons summary


Recency 17 April 2007 27 June 2017
Maximum RAM amount 512 MB 3 GB
Chip lithography 80 nm 16 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 47 Watt 80 Watt

8600 GT has 70.2% lower power consumption.

GTX 1060 Max-Q 3 GB, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 10 years, a 500% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 400% more advanced lithography process.

We couldn't decide between GeForce 8600 GT and GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q 3 GB. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that GeForce 8600 GT is a desktop card while GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q 3 GB is a notebook one.


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

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NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
GeForce 8600 GT
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q 3 GB
GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q 3 GB

Comparisons with similar GPUs

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Community ratings

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