GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile Refresh vs 8600 GTS

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)Ampere (2020−2024)
GPU code nameG84GA107
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Release date17 April 2007 (17 years ago)6 July 2022 (2 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 cores322048
Core clock speed675 MHz1237 MHz
Boost clock speedno data1492 MHz
Number of transistors289 millionno data
Manufacturing process technology80 nm8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)60 Watt75 Watt
Texture fill rate10.8095.49
Floating-point processing power0.0928 TFLOPS6.111 TFLOPS
ROPs832
TMUs1664
Tensor Coresno data64
Ray Tracing Coresno data16

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 x8
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 typeGDDR3GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount256 MB6 GB
Standard memory config per GPU256 MBno data
Memory bus width128 Bit96 Bit
Memory clock speed1000 MHz1500 MHz
Memory bandwidth32 GB/s144.0 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 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)12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model4.06.6
OpenGL2.14.6
OpenCL1.13.0
VulkanN/A1.3
CUDA1.18.6

Pros & cons summary


Recency 17 April 2007 6 July 2022
Maximum RAM amount 256 MB 6 GB
Chip lithography 80 nm 8 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 60 Watt 75 Watt

8600 GTS has 25% lower power consumption.

RTX 3050 Mobile Refresh, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 15 years, a 2300% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 900% more advanced lithography process.

We couldn't decide between GeForce 8600 GTS and GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile Refresh. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that GeForce 8600 GTS is a desktop card while GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile Refresh is a notebook one.


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 3050 Mobile Refresh
GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile Refresh

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
3.5 50 votes

Rate GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile Refresh 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.