GeForce GTX 1060 vs GeForce GTX 260

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 260, which has a clock speed of 576 MHz and a GDDR3 memory frequency of 999 MHz. It also makes use of a 448-bit bus, and makes use of a 65 nm design. It is made up of 192 SPUs, 64 TAUs, and 28 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 1060		120 Watts
GeForce GTX 260		182 Watts
	Difference: 62 Watts (52%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 1060 should in theory be quite a bit superior to the GeForce GTX 260 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060		196608 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 260		111888 MB/sec
	Difference: 84720 (76%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1060 will be a lot (about 227%) more effective at texture filtering than the GeForce GTX 260. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060		120480 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 260		36864 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 83616 (227%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1060 is quite a bit (approximately 348%) better at FSAA than the GeForce GTX 260, and will be capable of handling higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060		72288 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 260		16128 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 56160 (348%)

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 max amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by the speed of its memory. In the case of DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip could possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.