GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB GA104 vs 8600 GT
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | not rated | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | 51 |
| Architecture | Tesla (2006−2010) | Ampere (2020−2024) |
| GPU code name | G84 | GA104 |
| Market segment | Desktop | Desktop |
| Release date | 17 April 2007 (17 years ago) | 1 September 2021 (3 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $159 | $329 |
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 | 32 | 3584 |
| Core clock speed | 540 MHz | 1320 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | no data | 1777 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 289 million | 17,400 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 80 nm | 8 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 47 Watt | 170 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 8.640 | 199.0 |
| Floating-point processing power | 0.07616 TFLOPS | 12.74 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 8 | 48 |
| TMUs | 16 | 112 |
| Tensor Cores | no data | 112 |
| Ray Tracing Cores | no data | 28 |
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 4.0 x16 |
| Length | 170 mm | 242 mm |
| Width | 1-slot | 2-slot |
| Supplementary power connectors | None | 1x 12-pin |
| 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 type | GDDR3 | GDDR6 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 512 MB | 12 GB |
| Standard memory config per GPU | 256 MB | no data |
| Memory bus width | 128 Bit | 192 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 700 MHz | 1875 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 22.4 GB/s | 360.0 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 | 2x DVI, 1x S-Video | 1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a |
| HDMI | - | + |
API compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 11.1 (10_0) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |
| Shader Model | 4.0 | 6.6 |
| OpenGL | 2.1 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | 1.1 | 3.0 |
| Vulkan | N/A | 1.3 |
| CUDA | 1.1 | 8.6 |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 17 April 2007 | 1 September 2021 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 512 MB | 12 GB |
| Chip lithography | 80 nm | 8 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 47 Watt | 170 Watt |
8600 GT has 261.7% lower power consumption.
RTX 3060 12 GB GA104, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 14 years, a 2300% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 900% more advanced lithography process.
We couldn't decide between GeForce 8600 GT and GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB GA104. We've got no test results to judge.
Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
Comparisons with similar GPUs
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