GeForce GTX 1060 3GB vs GeForce GTX 980

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 980, which features a core clock speed of 1126 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1750 MHz. It also features a 256-bit bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It is made up of 2048 SPUs, 128 TAUs, and 64 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 980		408 Sol/s
GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		290 Sol/s
	Difference: 118 (41%)

Ethereum Mining Hash Rate

GeForce GTX 980		20 Mh/s
GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		19 Mh/s
	Difference: 1 (5%)

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score

GeForce GTX 980		13552 points
GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		12185 points
	Difference: 1367 (11%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		120 Watts
GeForce GTX 980		165 Watts
	Difference: 45 Watts (38%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 980 should be 14% faster than the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB overall, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		224000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		196608 MB/sec
	Difference: 27392 (14%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 980 will be quite a bit (about 33%) better at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		144128 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		108432 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 35696 (33%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB is superior to the GeForce GTX 980, though not by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		72288 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 980		72064 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 224 (0%)

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 MB per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the bandwidth is, 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units 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 amount of pixels the video card can possibly write to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.