GeForce GTX 960 vs Geforce GTX 680

Intro

Compare those specs to the Geforce GTX 680, which features GPU core speed of 1006 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 1502 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 1536 Stream Processors, 128 TAUs, and 32 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 680		7650 points
GeForce GTX 960		7627 points
	Difference: 23 (0%)

Ethereum Mining Hash Rate

Geforce GTX 680		16 Mh/s
GeForce GTX 960		11 Mh/s
	Difference: 5 (45%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 960		120 Watts
Geforce GTX 680		195 Watts
	Difference: 75 Watts (63%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the Geforce GTX 680 is 72% quicker than the GeForce GTX 960 overall, because of its higher data rate. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		192256 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 960		112000 MB/sec
	Difference: 80256 (72%)

Texel Rate

The Geforce GTX 680 should be quite a bit (about 79%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 960. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		128768 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 960		72128 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 56640 (79%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960 will be a bit (approximately 12%) faster with regards to anti-aliasing than the Geforce GTX 680, and also should be capable of handling higher resolutions more effectively. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		36064 Mpixels/sec
Geforce GTX 680		32192 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 3872 (12%)

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: Bandwidth is the largest amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.