NVIDIA 10-Series vs 40-Series – How Far Have We Come?

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The NVIDIA 10-Series (GTX 1000) graphics were said to be the golden age of GPUs. In this era, cards were incredibly affordable, performance was some of the best you’d ever seen, and many gamers still use cards from this range today. Cue 2022 with the arrival of the RTX 40-Series of graphics cards, and things have significantly shifted. During this period, we’ve seen price hikes, equally drastic performance gains, and revolutionary technology that has changed the face of gaming.

But how far have we come when comparing these two series of graphics cards side-by-side? We’ll determine this by testing 10-Series and 40-Series cards in a series of GeekaWhat benchmarks!

This article examines the history of graphics cards, delving into the specs of the GTX 1000 range of graphics cards and comparing them against the RTX 4000 series. We’ll examine the specs, architecture, and performance benchmarks to see how these GPUs have evolved over time.

Specs Comparison

One of the first things worth examining is the difference in the specs. It’s worth remembering that the GTX 1000 range was released in 2016, which is eight years ago when writing this article. We’ve picked out two of the most popular cards from the GTX 1000 and RTX 4000 series (the GTX 1060 6GB and the RTX 4060 8GB) to give you an idea of how things have changed.

The first thing you’ll immediately notice is the memory capacity and type. The GTX 1060 was a 6GB card using GDDR5 bandwidth, while the 4060 has 8GB of VRAM and uses GDDR6 speeds. 8GB of VRAM became the norm with the arrival of the NVIDIA RTX 20-Series as the hardware demand in games started to increase. It’s pretty rare to see a graphics card use less than 8GB of VRAM, but this was a well-known strategy with GTX 1000, as it allowed NVIDIA to create cheaper but still feasible SKUs, such as the GTX 1060 3GB. GDDR6 has also been used since 20-Series, which doubled the bandwidth of GDDR5.

Surprisingly, the RTX 4060 is weaker regarding the memory bus, with a 128-bit bus width. This is partly why it landed in hot water with reviewers during its rather turbulent launch. Despite this, it’s still an incredibly popular card.

Clock speeds have significantly improved with the future generation of NVIDIA graphics cards. All 10-Series cards sat well under the 2GHz mark, while the RTX 4060 easily surpasses this with a 2.46GHz boost clock. The boost clock increases the speed at which the card processes graphical data, so it’s no wonder new cards have had to bump this up to match the demand for new games.

Looking at the cores, GTX 1000 was one of the first series of NVIDIA graphics cards to mass stockpile CUDA cores, which is why they were so popular. The GTX 1080 Ti, for example, was one of the most sought-after GPUs due to its exceptional amount of CUDA cores. In 2024, high CUDA core graphics cards are still the go-to for workstations, but with the introduction of Tensor cores and additional technology like DLSS, CUDA cores aren’t entirely responsible for processing power. And these are, unfortunately, technologies that we wouldn’t see until RTX 2000 in 2018.

With the arrival of the RTX 4000 SUPER series towards the start of 2024, the RTX 4000 range has continued to improve. The SUPER range serves as a mid-life refresh that bolsters the RTX 4070, RTX 4070 Ti, and RTX 4080 specs. These cards are all worth considering for those who need more processing power or for gamers looking to play games at 1440p or higher.

Power draw has mostly remained the same. While the RTX 4060 is more powerful, it is comparatively more efficient and doesn’t require a beefier PSU compared to the GTX 1060. Fortunately, the MSRP hasn’t changed either. Both cards share the same $299 MSRP, which shows that the RTX 4060 has remained unaffected by inflation and general price hikes.

Architectural Differences

The GTX 1000 and RTX 4000 series are vastly different architecturally. NVIDIA GTX 10-Series cards are based on the Pascal microarchitecture, succeeding the previous generation’s Kepler and Maxwell cards. Pascal GPUs use high-bandwidth memory, less power and are manufactured on a TSMC process node, improving performance significantly. The shrink in die size brought substantially better performance than Maxwell graphics cards, making it the go-to for those looking for an upgrade.

NVIDIA’s RTX 4000 range has continued improving performance, but not without the assistance of new technologies. With higher-end RTX 4000 SKUs, Lovelace allows gamers to enjoy more frames at 4K, which wasn’t entirely possible on GTX 1000 cards. Additionally, RTX 4000 offers various software and technology designed to streamline and assist gameplay.

For example, DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) is NVIDIA’s AI tech that redraws an image on the screen at a lower resolution and then upscales it to reduce the performance overhead. This can be further enhanced with an offshoot of DLSS known as Frame Generation, which uses AI to anticipate and draw new frames between others, making gameplay smoother.

The main changes between these generations are that Lovelace cards (RTX 4000) offer considerably more raw performance, and with refinements to DLSS and ray tracing, these technologies have started to reshape the gaming industry. Pascal cards, while at the time their performance was practically unrivalled, are ultimately outclassed by newer generations of cards. The significant changes that landed with Pascal have improved NVIDIA’s graphics cards for the better, but architecturally, RTX 4000 GPUs are significantly more impressive.

Gaming Benchmarks

We’ve tested the RTX 4060 and GTX 1060 side-by-side in various modern titles to determine the true difference between the GTX 10-Series and RTX 40-Series. We’ve put the GTX 1060 6GB and RTX 4060 8GB head-to-head in two modern games to see how they fare. Both cards were benchmarked in the same system, which features an Intel Core i7-14700K, 32GB of TeamGroup T-Force Delta DDR5 RAM rated at 6400MT/s, and a 360mm liquid cooler. We did this to ensure that the only factor that affected performance was the graphics card.

Star Wars Outlaws

Settings: 1080p, Quality High, Film Grain On, Depth of Field High, Environment Reflection Quality High, Shadow Quality High, Defathomable Terrain Quality High, Destruction Quality High

The first game we ran was Star Wars Outlaws at 1080p high settings. In this title, you can immediately see that the GTX 1060 6GB struggled. This card outputs an average of around 25FPS, compared to the much more playable 72FPS on the RTX 4060. 1% lows are decent, with little deviance from the RTX 4060 in rasterised gameplay.

While the GTX 1060 6GB doesn’t have access to DLSS or Frame Generation, it’s interesting to see how these technologies propel frame rates. The 101FPS average on the RTX 4060 with DLSS switched to the quality preset is an impressive metric and a big selling point for this particular generation of cards.

Black Myth Wukong

Settings: 1080p High, Graphics Preset High, View Distance Quality High, Anti-Aliasing Quality High, Post-Effects Quality High, Shadow Quality High, Texture Quality High, Visual Effect Quality High

Unfortunately, the GTX 1060 6GB performance worsens in Black Myth Wukong. In this AAA title, the GTX 1060 offered up a 16FPS average, which is entirely unplayable. While the performance from the RTX 4060 is better, with a 55FPS average, it isn’t remarkable. Black Myth Wukong is graphically intense, so the RTX 4060 would benefit from more VRAM and potentially a more robust memory bus to bolster the framerates above the 60FPS mark.

Again, DLSS and Frame Gen are here to save the day in this benchmark, offering 84FPS and 111FPS averages, respectively. These technologies demonstrate their importance in Black Myth Wukong and are worth switching on in titles that support them.

Closing Thoughts

Comparing the GTX 1060 6GB and the RTX 4060 is quite an eye-opener in determining how far we’ve come since 2016. While the GTX 1000 range of graphics cards may have been the proverbial golden age of desktop PC gaming, it isn’t anymore. The Pascal architecture was a significant step for NVIDIA regarding efficiency improvements, processing power, and more, but cards like the 1060 6GB significantly struggle in modern titles, even at 1080p.

Despite this, these cards have paved the way for the current generation of GPUs, with the RTX 40-Series showcasing pretty radical improvements compared to its 10-Series predecessors. Without hardware like CUDA cores, NVIDIA’s pillar technologies would struggle to perform as well as they do. DLSS, Frame Generation, and ray tracing are all massive technologies that are reshaping the industry, improving performance and visual fidelity for gamers with a supporting graphics card, demonstrating how far we’ve come in the past eight years.