GeForce GTX 1060 3GB vs Radeon R9 280X

Intro

Compare all that to the Radeon R9 280X, which has a core clock frequency of 850 MHz and a GDDR5 memory speed of 1500 MHz. It also features a 384-bit bus, and uses a 28 nm design. It is comprised of 2048 SPUs, 128 TAUs, and 32 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

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

Radeon R9 280X		294 Sol/s
GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		290 Sol/s
	Difference: 4 (1%)

Ethereum Mining Hash Rate

Radeon R9 280X		21 Mh/s
GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		19 Mh/s
	Difference: 2 (11%)

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		12185 points
Radeon R9 280X		8886 points
	Difference: 3299 (37%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		120 Watts
Radeon R9 280X		250 Watts
	Difference: 130 Watts (108%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Radeon R9 280X will be 46% faster than the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB overall, due to its higher bandwidth. (explain)

Radeon R9 280X		288000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		196608 MB/sec
	Difference: 91392 (46%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon R9 280X will be just a bit (about 0%) better at AF than the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB. (explain)

Radeon R9 280X		108800 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		108432 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 368 (0%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1060 3GB should be a lot (approximately 166%) more effective at FSAA than the Radeon R9 280X, and will be capable of handling higher screen resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		72288 Mpixels/sec
Radeon R9 280X		27200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 45088 (166%)

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 (in units of MB per second) that can be moved past the external memory interface in one second. It is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher 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 texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units 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 rate also depends on many other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.