GeForce GTX 960 vs Geforce GTX 690

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Geforce GTX 690, which comes with a core clock frequency of 915 MHz and a GDDR5 memory frequency of 1502 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 1536 SPUs, 128 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

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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 690		13111 points
GeForce GTX 960		7627 points
	Difference: 5484 (72%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 960		120 Watts
Geforce GTX 690		300 Watts
	Difference: 180 Watts (150%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the Geforce GTX 690 should perform much faster than the GeForce GTX 960 overall. (explain)

Geforce GTX 690		384512 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 960		112000 MB/sec
	Difference: 272512 (243%)

Texel Rate

The Geforce GTX 690 will be quite a bit (more or less 225%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTX 960. (explain)

Geforce GTX 690		234240 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 960		72128 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 162112 (225%)

Pixel Rate

The Geforce GTX 690 is quite a bit (approximately 62%) more effective at FSAA than the GeForce GTX 960, and also will be able to handle higher resolutions better. (explain)

Geforce GTX 690		58560 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 960		36064 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 22496 (62%)

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.

One or more cards in this comparison are multi-core. This means that their bandwidth, texel and pixel rates are theoretically doubled - this does not mean the card will actually perform twice as fast, but only that it should in theory be able to. Actual game benchmarks will give a more accurate idea of what it's capable of.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card could possibly record to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of ROPs by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.