GeForce GTX 1060 vs GeForce GTX 280

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 280, which features a clock frequency of 602 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 1107 MHz. It also uses a 512-bit bus, and uses a 65 nm design. It is comprised of 240 SPUs, 80 Texture Address Units, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 1060		120 Watts
GeForce GTX 280		236 Watts
	Difference: 116 Watts (97%)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 1060 should theoretically be quite a bit superior to the GeForce GTX 280 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060		196608 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 280		141696 MB/sec
	Difference: 54912 (39%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1060 should be quite a bit (approximately 150%) better at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 280. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060		120480 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 280		48160 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 72320 (150%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 1060 is superior to the GeForce GTX 280, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060		72288 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 280		19264 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 53024 (275%)

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 max amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.