GeForce GTX 1060 3GB vs GeForce GTX 960

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 960, which uses a 28 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 1127 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM works at a speed of 1750 MHz on this particular model. It features 1024 SPUs as well as 64 TAUs and 32 ROPs.

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

In theory, the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB is 76% faster than the GeForce GTX 960 overall, because of its greater data rate. (explain)

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

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1060 3GB should be much (approximately 50%) more effective at anisotropic filtering 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 a high resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB is the winner, by far. (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 max amount of data (counted in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. It's worked out by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If it uses DDR RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the card's memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, 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 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 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 worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate is also dependant 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 maximum fill rate.