GeForce GTX 1060 3GB vs GeForce GTX 960

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 960, which comes with a GPU core clock speed of 1127 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 1750 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also features 1024 Stream Processors, 64 Texture Address Units, 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.

Zcash Mining Hash Rate

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		290 Sol/s
GeForce GTX 960		154 Sol/s
	Difference: 136 (88%)

Ethereum Mining Hash Rate

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		19 Mh/s
GeForce GTX 960		11 Mh/s
	Difference: 8 (73%)

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		12185 points
GeForce GTX 960		7627 points
	Difference: 4558 (60%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Both cards have the same power consumption.

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB should in theory be quite a bit better than the GeForce GTX 960 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		196608 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 960		112000 MB/sec
	Difference: 84608 (76%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1060 3GB will be a lot (more or less 50%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTX 960. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		108432 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 960		72128 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 36304 (50%)

Pixel Rate

If using high levels of AA is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		72288 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 960		36064 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 36224 (100%)

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 maximum amount of data (counted in megabytes per second) that can be transported past the external memory interface in one second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type 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, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the video card can possibly write to its local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on lots of other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.