Compare any two graphics cards:

GeForce GTX 1060 vs GeForce GTX 980

Intro

The GeForce GTX 1060 makes use of a 16 nm design. nVidia has set the core speed at 1506 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM runs at a speed of 2000 MHz on this specific card. It features 1280 SPUs as well as 80 Texture Address Units and 48 ROPs.

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 980, which makes use of a 28 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core frequency at 1126 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM is set to run at a speed of 1750 MHz on this particular model. It features 2048 SPUs along with 128 Texture Address Units and 64 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.

Zcash Mining Hash Rate

GeForce GTX 980		408 Sol/s
GeForce GTX 1060		311 Sol/s
	Difference: 97 (31%)

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score

GeForce GTX 980		13552 points
GeForce GTX 1060		12359 points
	Difference: 1193 (10%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 1060		120 Watts
GeForce GTX 980		165 Watts
	Difference: 45 Watts (38%)

Memory Bandwidth

As far as performance goes, the GeForce GTX 980 should in theory be just a bit better than the GeForce GTX 1060 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		224000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 1060		196608 MB/sec
	Difference: 27392 (14%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 980 is a bit (about 20%) more effective at anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 1060. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		144128 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 1060		120480 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 23648 (20%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 1060 is the winner, but it probably won't make a huge difference. (explain)

GeForce GTX 1060		72288 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 980		72064 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 224 (0%)

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

Display Prices

Hide Prices

GeForce GTX 1060

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

GeForce GTX 980

Amazon.com

Check prices at:

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Specifications

Display Specifications

Hide Specifications

Model	GeForce GTX 1060	GeForce GTX 980
Manufacturer	nVidia	nVidia
Year	July 2016	September 2014
Code Name	GP106-400	GM204-400
Memory	6144 MB	4096 MB
Core Speed	1506 MHz	1126 MHz
Memory Speed	8000 MHz	7000 MHz
Power (Max TDP)	120 watts	165 watts
Bandwidth	196608 MB/sec	224000 MB/sec
Texel Rate	120480 Mtexels/sec	144128 Mtexels/sec
Pixel Rate	72288 Mpixels/sec	72064 Mpixels/sec
Unified Shaders	1280	2048
Texture Mapping Units	80	128
Render Output Units	48	64
Bus Type	GDDR5	GDDR5
Bus Width	192-bit	256-bit
Fab Process	16 nm	28 nm
Transistors	4400 million	5200 million
Bus	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 3.0 x16
DirectX Version	DirectX 12.0	DirectX 11.2
OpenGL Version	OpenGL 4.5	OpenGL 4.5

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface within a second. It is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card could 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 ROPs by the the core 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 is also dependant on lots of 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.

Display Prices

Hide Prices