GeForce GTX 480 vs GeForce GTX 960

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 960, which uses a 28 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 1127 MHz. The GDDR5 memory is set to run at a frequency of 1750 MHz on this particular model. It features 1024 SPUs along with 64 TAUs and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

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 960		7627 points
GeForce GTX 480		3650 points
	Difference: 3977 (109%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 960		120 Watts
GeForce GTX 480		250 Watts
	Difference: 130 Watts (108%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 480 should in theory be quite a bit better than the GeForce GTX 960 overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 480		177408 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 960		112000 MB/sec
	Difference: 65408 (58%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960 should be a lot (more or less 72%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTX 480. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		72128 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 480		42000 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 30128 (72%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 960 should be a small bit (approximately 7%) more effective at AA than the GeForce GTX 480, and will be able to handle higher screen resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		36064 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 480		33600 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 2464 (7%)

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 maximum amount of information (measured in MB per second) that can be moved across the external memory interface in one second. The number is calculated by multiplying the interface width by the speed of its memory. If the card has DDR type RAM, the result should 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 AA, HDR 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 by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the 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 video card could possibly record to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock 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 output rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the max fill rate.