Why are some older graphics cards as good or better than newer ones?

[jrfitz1998]

Hello,
I was looking at this hierarchy of graphics cards from this website, and I happened to notice that some older model graphics cards perform as well if not better than some of the newer model cards
(examples being how the GTX 980 outperforms the GTX 1060)

Am I missing some well-known trick?
Please help!

 

[Corwin65]

Look at it like this - the 980 was a top tier card at a specific price point - kinda like today's 1080
the 1060 would be similar to the 960 (I am not actually comparing specifics just using these as an analogy) created for that price point.

So while the 1060 is newer, it wasn't meant to compete with the 980.

 

[rgd1101]

It like asking why some old Ferrari is fast than new chevy spark

 

[dontlistentome]

You would do better to name a new card at the performance level you need, then ask what older card also hits that performance level.

Even if you're new to all this, common sense tells you that videocards are sold in every performance bracket, from slow to fast right? Okay, so if you took last year's fastest card and compared it to this year's slowest card, do you really expect the slow card to compete with it just because it's new?