GeForce RTX 3060 vs 8600 GTS

#ad 
Buy on Amazon
VS

Primary details

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

Place in the rankingnot rated81
Place by popularitynot in top-1004
Cost-effectiveness evaluationno data71.76
Power efficiencyno data18.79
ArchitectureTesla (2006−2010)Ampere (2020−2024)
GPU code nameG84GA106
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Release date17 April 2007 (17 years ago)12 January 2021 (3 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$199 $329

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

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 cores323584
Core clock speed675 MHz1320 MHz
Boost clock speedno data1777 MHz
Number of transistors289 million12,000 million
Manufacturing process technology80 nm8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)60 Watt170 Watt
Texture fill rate10.80199.0
Floating-point processing power0.0928 TFLOPS12.74 TFLOPS
ROPs848
TMUs16112
Tensor Coresno data112
Ray Tracing Coresno data28

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 4.0 x16
Length198 mm242 mm
Width1-slot2-slot
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pin1x 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 typeGDDR3GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount256 MB12 GB
Standard memory config per GPU256 MBno data
Memory bus width128 Bit192 Bit
Memory clock speed1000 MHz1875 MHz
Memory bandwidth32 GB/s360.0 GB/s
Shared memory--

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-Video1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a
HDMI-+

API compatibility

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

DirectX11.1 (10_0)12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model4.06.7
OpenGL2.14.6
OpenCL1.13.0
VulkanN/A1.3
CUDA1.18.6

Synthetic benchmark performance

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



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 GTS 158
RTX 3060 17085
+10713%

Pros & cons summary


Recency 17 April 2007 12 January 2021
Maximum RAM amount 256 MB 12 GB
Chip lithography 80 nm 8 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 60 Watt 170 Watt

8600 GTS has 183.3% lower power consumption.

RTX 3060, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 13 years, a 4700% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 900% more advanced lithography process.

We couldn't decide between GeForce 8600 GTS and GeForce RTX 3060. 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.

Vote for your favorite

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite graphics card.


NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS
GeForce 8600 GTS
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060
GeForce RTX 3060

Comparisons with similar GPUs

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


3.2 197 votes

Rate GeForce 8600 GTS on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
4.1 27715 votes

Rate GeForce RTX 3060 on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Questions & comments

Here you can ask a question about this comparison, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.