GeForce GTX 1050 3GB vs GeForce GTX 960

Intro

Compare that to the GeForce GTX 960, which comes with core speeds of 1127 MHz on the GPU, and 1750 MHz on the 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory. It features 1024 SPUs as well as 64 Texture Address Units and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 1050 3GB		75 Watts
GeForce GTX 960		120 Watts
	Difference: 45 Watts (60%)

Memory Bandwidth

The GeForce GTX 960 should in theory be much faster than the GeForce GTX 1050 3GB in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		112000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 1050 3GB		86016 MB/sec
	Difference: 25984 (30%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960 should be a bit (approximately 8%) better at AF than the GeForce GTX 1050 3GB. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		72128 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 1050 3GB		66816 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 5312 (8%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 960 is the winner, but not by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		36064 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 1050 3GB		33408 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2656 (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 max amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the card's 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 number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This number is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The better 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 card can possibly record to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the number of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the maximum fill rate.