GeForce GTX 1060 3GB vs GeForce GTX 970

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 970, which has a core clock speed of 1050 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1750 MHz. It also features a 256-bit memory bus, and makes use of a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 1664 SPUs, 104 TAUs, and 64 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 970		262 Sol/s
	Difference: 28 (11%)

Ethereum Mining Hash Rate

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		19 Mh/s
GeForce GTX 970		19 Mh/s
	Difference: 0 (0%)

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		12185 points
GeForce GTX 970		10867 points
	Difference: 1318 (12%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		120 Watts
GeForce GTX 970		145 Watts
	Difference: 25 Watts (21%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 970 is 14% faster than the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB overall, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		224000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		196608 MB/sec
	Difference: 27392 (14%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970 will be a bit (about 1%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970		109200 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		108432 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 768 (1%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1060 3GB should be a little bit (about 8%) better at AA than the GeForce GTX 970, and also will be able to handle higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		72288 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 970		67200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 5088 (8%)

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 largest amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. The number is calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If it uses DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better 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 amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied per second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the graphics card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

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