GeForce GTX 1080 vs GeForce GTX 970

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 970, which features GPU clock speed of 1050 MHz, and 4096 MB of GDDR5 RAM set to run at 1750 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also features 1664 Stream Processors, 104 TAUs, and 64 ROPs.

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 1080		21942 points
GeForce GTX 970		10867 points
	Difference: 11075 (102%)

Zcash Mining Hash Rate

GeForce GTX 1080		553 Sol/s
GeForce GTX 970		262 Sol/s
	Difference: 291 (111%)

Ethereum Mining Hash Rate

GeForce GTX 1080		20 Mh/s
GeForce GTX 970		19 Mh/s
	Difference: 1 (5%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 970		145 Watts
GeForce GTX 1080		180 Watts
	Difference: 35 Watts (24%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the GeForce GTX 1080 should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 970 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1080		327680 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 970		224000 MB/sec
	Difference: 103680 (46%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 1080 is much (approximately 135%) better at AF than the GeForce GTX 970. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1080		257120 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 970		109200 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 147920 (135%)

Pixel Rate

If running with lots of anti-aliasing is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 1080 is the winner, by far. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1080		102848 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 970		67200 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 35648 (53%)

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 MB per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the interface width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card can possibly write to the local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.