GeForce GTX 1060 3GB vs GeForce GTX 660

Intro

Compare all of that to the GeForce GTX 660, which features core speeds of 980 MHz on the GPU, and 1502 MHz on the 2048 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 960 SPUs along with 80 TAUs and 24 Rasterization Operator 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.

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		12185 points
GeForce GTX 660		5063 points
	Difference: 7122 (141%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		120 Watts
GeForce GTX 660		140 Watts
	Difference: 20 Watts (17%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB will be 36% quicker than the GeForce GTX 660 in general, due to its greater bandwidth. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		196608 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 660		144192 MB/sec
	Difference: 52416 (36%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1060 3GB should be much (about 38%) better at AF than the GeForce GTX 660. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		108432 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 660		78400 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 30032 (38%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1060 3GB will be a lot (more or less 207%) better at FSAA than the GeForce GTX 660, and also should be capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		72288 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 660		23520 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 48768 (207%)

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 megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface within a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to the local memory per second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.