GeForce 8600 GTS Mac Edition vs GTX 960

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Primary details

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

Place in the ranking342not rated
Place by popularity55not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation8.07no data
Power efficiency9.06no data
ArchitectureMaxwell 2.0 (2014−2019)Tesla (2006−2010)
GPU code nameGM206G84
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Release date22 January 2015 (9 years ago)21 September 2007 (17 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$199 no data

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 cores102432
Core clock speed1127 MHz675 MHz
Boost clock speed1178 MHzno data
Number of transistors2,940 million289 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm80 nm
Power consumption (TDP)120 Watt75 Watt
Texture fill rate75.3910.80
Floating-point processing power2.413 TFLOPS0.0928 TFLOPS
ROPs328
TMUs6416

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).

Bus supportPCI Express 3.0no data
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 1.0 x16
Length241 mmno data
Height4.376" (11.1 cm)no data
Width2-slot1-slot
Recommended system power (PSU)400 Wattno data
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pin1x 6-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 typeGDDR5GDDR3
Maximum RAM amount4 GB512 MB
Memory bus width128 Bit128 Bit
Memory clock speed7.0 GB/s1008 MHz
Memory bandwidth112 GB/s32.26 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 ConnectorsDual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.22x DVI
Multi monitor support4 displaysno data
HDMI+-
HDCP+-
Maximum VGA resolution2048x1536no data
G-SYNC support+-
Audio input for HDMIInternalno data

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

GameStream+-
GeForce ShadowPlay+-
GPU Boost2.0no data
GameWorks+-

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 (12_1)11.1 (10_0)
Shader Model6.44.0
OpenGL4.43.3
OpenCL1.21.1
Vulkan+N/A
CUDA+1.1

Pros & cons summary


Recency 22 January 2015 21 September 2007
Maximum RAM amount 4 GB 512 MB
Chip lithography 28 nm 80 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 120 Watt 75 Watt

GTX 960 has an age advantage of 7 years, a 700% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 185.7% more advanced lithography process.

8600 GTS Mac Edition, on the other hand, has 60% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between GeForce GTX 960 and GeForce 8600 GTS Mac Edition. 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.

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960
GeForce GTX 960
NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS Mac Edition
GeForce 8600 GTS Mac Edition

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Community ratings

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