GeForce GTX 970 Vs 960 [in 12 Benchmarks] - Technical City

Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the ranking	270	394
Place by popularity	90	57
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	12.13	8.12
Power efficiency	11.96	9.39
Architecture	Maxwell 2.0 (2014−2019)	Maxwell 2.0 (2014−2019)
GPU code name	GM204	GM206
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	19 September 2014 (11 years ago)	22 January 2015 (10 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$329	$199

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

The higher the ratio, the better. We use the manufacturer's recommended prices.

GTX 970 has 49% better value for money than GTX 960.

Performance to price scatter graph

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	1664	1024
Core clock speed	1050 MHz	1127 MHz
Boost clock speed	1178 MHz	1178 MHz
Number of transistors	5,200 million	2,940 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	148 Watt	120 Watt
Maximum GPU temperature	98 °C	no data
Texture fill rate	122.5	75.39
Floating-point processing power	3.92 TFLOPS	2.413 TFLOPS
ROPs	56	32
TMUs	104	64
L1 Cache	624 KB	384 KB
L2 Cache	2 MB	1024 KB

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Bus support	PCI Express 3.0	PCI Express 3.0
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 3.0 x16
Length	267 mm	241 mm
Height	4.376" (11.1 cm)	4.376" (11.1 cm)
Width	2-slot	2-slot
Recommended system power (PSU)	500 Watt	400 Watt
Supplementary power connectors	2x 6-pin	1x 6-pin
SLI options	+	+

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory type	GDDR5	GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	4 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	7.0 GB/s	7.0 GB/s
Memory bandwidth	224 GB/s	112 GB/s
Shared memory	-	-

Connectivity and outputs

This section shows the types and number of video connectors on each GPU. The data applies specifically to desktop reference models (for example, NVIDIA’s Founders Edition). OEM partners often modify both the number and types of ports. On notebook GPUs, video‐output options are determined by the laptop’s design rather than the graphics chip itself.

Display Connectors	Dual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2	Dual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2
Multi monitor support	4 displays	4 displays
HDMI	+	+
HDCP	+	+
Maximum VGA resolution	2048x1536	2048x1536
G-SYNC support	+	+
Audio input for HDMI	Internal	Internal

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

GameStream	+	+
GeForce ShadowPlay	+	+
GPU Boost	2.0	2.0
GameWorks	+	+

API and SDK support

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX	12 (12_1)	12 (12_1)
Shader Model	6.4	6.4
OpenGL	4.4	4.4
OpenCL	1.2	1.2
Vulkan	1.1.126	+
CUDA	+	+