Wii U GPU vs GeForce 8600 GTS

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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)TeraScale 2 (2009−2015)
GPU code nameG84Latte
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Release date17 April 2007 (17 years ago)18 November 2012 (12 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$199 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 cores32160
Core clock speed675 MHz550 MHz
Number of transistors289 million880 million
Manufacturing process technology80 nm40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)60 Watt33 Watt
Texture fill rate10.808.800
Floating-point processing power0.0928 TFLOPS0.176 TFLOPS
ROPs88
TMUs1616

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 x16IGP
Length198 mmno data
Width1-slotno data
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pinno data
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 typeGDDR3DDR3
Maximum RAM amount256 MB2 GB
Standard memory config per GPU256 MBno data
Memory bus width128 Bit64 Bit
Memory clock speed1000 MHz800 MHz
Memory bandwidth32 GB/s12.8 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 outputs

API compatibility

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

DirectX11.1 (10_0)N/A
Shader Model4.05.0
OpenGL2.1N/A
OpenCL1.1N/A
VulkanN/AN/A
CUDA1.1-

Pros & cons summary


Recency 17 April 2007 18 November 2012
Maximum RAM amount 256 MB 2 GB
Chip lithography 80 nm 40 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 60 Watt 33 Watt

Wii U GPU has an age advantage of 5 years, a 700% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 100% more advanced lithography process, and 81.8% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between GeForce 8600 GTS and Wii U GPU. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that GeForce 8600 GTS is a desktop card while Wii U GPU 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 GTS
GeForce 8600 GTS
AMD Wii U GPU
Wii U GPU

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Community ratings

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