GeForce GTX 660 vs GeForce GTX 980

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 980, which has GPU core speed of 1126 MHz, and 4096 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1750 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is made up of 2048 SPUs, 128 TAUs, and 64 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Benchmarks

These are real-world performance benchmarks that were submitted by Hardware Compare users. The scores seen here are the average of all benchmarks submitted for each respective test and hardware.

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score

GeForce GTX 980		13552 points
GeForce GTX 660		5063 points
	Difference: 8489 (168%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 660		140 Watts
GeForce GTX 980		165 Watts
	Difference: 25 Watts (18%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 980 should in theory be much better than the GeForce GTX 660 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		224000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 660		144192 MB/sec
	Difference: 79808 (55%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 980 is quite a bit (about 84%) faster with regards to texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 660. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		144128 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 660		78400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 65728 (84%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 980 is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		72064 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 660		23520 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 48544 (206%)

Please note that the above 'benchmarks' are all just theoretical - the results were calculated based on the card's specifications, and real-world performance may (and probably will) vary at least a bit.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed in one second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total amount of texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.