GeForce GTX 1060 3GB vs GeForce GTX 480

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 480, which has a GPU core clock speed of 700 MHz, and 1536 MB of GDDR5 RAM running at 924 MHz through a 384-bit bus. It also is made up of 480 SPUs, 60 Texture Address Units, and 48 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.

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		12185 points
GeForce GTX 480		3650 points
	Difference: 8535 (234%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		120 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 130 Watts (108%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB should be a small bit faster than the GeForce GTX 480 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		196608 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
	Difference: 19200 (11%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1060 3GB should be quite a bit (more or less 158%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 480. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		108432 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 66432 (158%)

Pixel Rate

If using lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB is superior to the GeForce GTX 480, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060 3GB		72288 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 38688 (115%)

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 (counted in MB per second) that can be transported over the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the bandwidth is, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be applied in one second. This figure is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core speed of the chip. The better this number, the better the card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

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