NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960: specs and benchmarks

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Summary

NVIDIA started GeForce GTX 960 sales 22 January 2015 at a recommended price of $199 . This is a desktop graphics card based on a Maxwell architecture and made with 28 nm manufacturing process. It is primarily aimed at gamer market. 4 GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 7.0 GB/s are supplied, and together with 128 Bit memory interface this creates a bandwidth of 112 GB/s.

Compatibility-wise, this is dual-width card attached via PCIe 3.0 x16 interface. Its manufacturer default version has a length of 9.5" (24.1 cm). 1x 6-pins power connector is required, and power consumption is at 120 Watt.

It provides poor gaming and benchmark performance at 15.64% of a leader's which is NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090.

RTX 4090GeForce RTX4090
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General info

Some basic facts about GeForce GTX 960: architecture, market segment, release date etc.

Place in performance ranking314
Place by popularity53
Value for money2.11
ArchitectureMaxwell (2014−2018)
GPU code nameGM206
Market segmentDesktop
Release date22 January 2015 (9 years old)
Launch price (MSRP)$199
Current price$440 (2.2x MSRP)of 168889 (A100 PCIe 80 GB)
Value for money

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

Technical specs

GeForce GTX 960's specs such as number of shaders, GPU base clock, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of GeForce GTX 960's performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider its benchmark and gaming test results.

Pipelines / CUDA cores1024of 20480 (Data Center GPU Max NEXT)
CUDA cores1024
Core clock speed1127 MHzof 2610 (Radeon RX 6500 XT)
Boost clock speed1178 MHzof 3599 (Radeon RX 7990 XTX)
Number of transistors2,940 millionof 14400 (GeForce GTX 1080 SLI Mobile)
Manufacturing process technology28 nmof 4 (GeForce RTX 4080)
Power consumption (TDP)120 Wattof 2400 (Data Center GPU Max Subsystem)
Texture fill rate72 billion/secof 969.9 (H100 SXM5 96 GB)
Floating-point performance2,413 gflopsof 16384 (Radeon Pro Duo)

Size and compatibility

This section provides details about the physical dimensions of GeForce GTX 960 and its compatibility with other computer components. This information is useful when selecting a computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards, it includes details about the interface and bus (for motherboard compatibility) and additional power connectors (for power supply compatibility).

Bus supportPCI Express 3.0
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16
Length9.5" (24.1 cm)
Height4.376" (11.1 cm)
Width2-slot
Recommended system power (PSU)400 Watt
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pins
SLI options+

Memory

Parameters of memory installed on GeForce GTX 960: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Note that GPUs integrated into processors have no dedicated memory and use a shared part of system RAM instead.

Memory typeGDDR5
Maximum RAM amount4 GBof 192 (Radeon Instinct MI300X)
Memory bus width128 Bitof 19000 (GeForce RTX 3080 12 GB)
Memory clock speed7.0 GB/sof 23000 (GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER)
Memory bandwidth112 GB/sof 3276 (Aldebaran)
Shared memory-

Video outputs and ports

Types and number of video connectors present on GeForce GTX 960. As a rule, this section is relevant only for desktop reference graphics cards, since for notebook ones the availability of certain video outputs depends on the laptop model, while non-reference desktop models can (though not necessarily will) bear a different set of video ports.

Display ConnectorsDual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2
Multi monitor support4 displays
HDMI+
HDCP+
Maximum VGA resolution2048x1536
G-SYNC support+
Audio input for HDMIInternal

Technologies

Technological solutions and APIs supported by GeForce GTX 960. You'll probably need this information if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

GameStream+
GeForce ShadowPlay+
GPU Boost2.0
GameWorks+

API support

APIs supported by GeForce GTX 960, sometimes including their particular versions.

DirectX12 (12_1)
Shader Model6.4
OpenGL4.4of 4.6 (GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile)
OpenCL1.2
Vulkan+
CUDA+

Benchmark performance

Synthetic benchmark performance of GeForce GTX 960. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.


Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark, part of Passmark PerformanceTest suite. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

Benchmark coverage: 25%

GTX 960 6062

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

GTX 960 30751

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

GTX 960 10768

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

GTX 960 7916

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

Cloud Gate is an outdated DirectX 11 feature level 10 benchmark that was used for home PCs and basic notebooks. It displays a few scenes of some weird space teleportation device launching spaceships into unknown, using fixed resolution of 1280x720. Just like Ice Storm benchmark, it has been discontinued in January 2020 and replaced by 3DMark Night Raid.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

GTX 960 49918

GeekBench 5 OpenCL

Geekbench 5 is a widespread graphics card benchmark combined from 11 different test scenarios. All these scenarios rely on direct usage of GPU's processing power, no 3D rendering is involved. This variation uses OpenCL API by Khronos Group.

Benchmark coverage: 9%

GTX 960 18066

3DMark Ice Storm GPU

Ice Storm Graphics is an obsolete benchmark, part of 3DMark suite. Ice Storm was used to measure entry level laptops and Windows-based tablets performance. It utilizes DirectX 11 feature level 9 to display a battle between two space fleets near a frozen planet in 1280x720 resolution. Discontinued in January 2020, it is now superseded by 3DMark Night Raid.

Benchmark coverage: 8%

GTX 960 310860

GeekBench 5 Vulkan

Geekbench 5 is a widespread graphics card benchmark combined from 11 different test scenarios. All these scenarios rely on direct usage of GPU's processing power, no 3D rendering is involved. This variation uses Vulkan API by AMD & Khronos Group.

Benchmark coverage: 5%

GTX 960 20002

GeekBench 5 CUDA

Geekbench 5 is a widespread graphics card benchmark combined from 11 different test scenarios. All these scenarios rely on direct usage of GPU's processing power, no 3D rendering is involved. This variation uses CUDA API by NVIDIA.

Benchmark coverage: 4%

GTX 960 17784

Octane Render OctaneBench

This is a special benchmark measuring graphics card performance in OctaneRender, which is a realistic GPU rendering engine by OTOY Inc., available either as a standalone program, or as a plugin for 3DS Max, Cinema 4D and many other apps. It renders four different static scenes, then compares render times with a reference GPU which is currently GeForce GTX 980. This benchmark has nothing to do with gaming and is aimed at professional 3D graphics artists.

Benchmark coverage: 4%

GTX 960 48

Unigine Heaven 4.0

This is an old DirectX 11 benchmark, a newer version of Unigine 3.0 with relatively small differences. It displays a fantasy medieval town sprawling over several flying islands. The benchmark is still sometimes used, despite its significant age, as it was released back in 2013.

Benchmark coverage: 1%

GTX 960 866

Gaming performance

Let's see how good GeForce GTX 960 is for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in frames per second. Comparisons with game system requirements are included, but remember that sometimes official requirements may reflect reality inaccurately.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular modern games across different resolutions:

Full HD65
4K29

Performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 24−27

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 30−35
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 27−30
Battlefield 5 50−55
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 40−45
Cyberpunk 2077 24−27
Far Cry 5 40−45
Far Cry New Dawn 40−45
Forza Horizon 4 50−55
Hitman 3 40−45
Horizon Zero Dawn 30−35
Red Dead Redemption 2 24−27
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 30−35
Watch Dogs: Legion 27−30

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 30−35
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 27−30
Battlefield 5 50−55
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 40−45
Cyberpunk 2077 24−27
Far Cry 5 40−45
Far Cry New Dawn 40−45
Forza Horizon 4 50−55
Hitman 3 40−45
Horizon Zero Dawn 30−35
Metro Exodus 24−27
Red Dead Redemption 2 24−27
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 30−35
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 50
Watch Dogs: Legion 27−30

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 30−35
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 27−30
Battlefield 5 50−55
Cyberpunk 2077 24−27
Far Cry 5 40−45
Far Cry New Dawn 40−45
Forza Horizon 4 50−55
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 28
Watch Dogs: Legion 27−30

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 21−24
Hitman 3 24−27
Horizon Zero Dawn 21−24
Metro Exodus 14−16
Red Dead Redemption 2 10−12
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 20−22

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 16−18
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 12−14
Battlefield 5 30−35
Cyberpunk 2077 8−9
Far Cry 5 24−27
Far Cry New Dawn 27−30
Forza Horizon 4 27−30
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 18−20
Watch Dogs: Legion 10−11

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 10−12
Hitman 3 14−16
Horizon Zero Dawn 10−12
Metro Exodus 8−9
Red Dead Redemption 2 8−9
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 10−11
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 14−16

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 9−10
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 7−8
Battlefield 5 16−18
Cyberpunk 2077 3−4
Far Cry 5 12−14
Far Cry New Dawn 14−16
Forza Horizon 4 20−22
Watch Dogs: Legion 6−7

Relative perfomance

GeForce GTX 960's performance compared to nearest competitors among desktop video cards.


AMD equivalent

According to our data, the closest AMD alternative to GeForce GTX 960 is Radeon R9 380, which is faster by 2% and higher by 3 positions in our ranking.

R9 380Radeon R9380
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Here are some closest AMD rivals to GeForce GTX 960:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 100

Similar GPUs

Here is our recommendation of several graphics cards that are more or less close in performance to the one reviewed.

R9 380Radeon R9380
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R9 280XRadeon R9280X
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GTX 1050 TiGeForce GTX1050 Ti
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GTX 680GeForce GTX680
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GTX 950GeForce GTX950
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RX 570Radeon RX570
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Recommended processors

These processors are most commonly used with GeForce GTX 960 according to our statistics.

User ratings: view and submit

Here you can see the user rating of the graphics card, as well as rate it yourself.


4 3233 votes

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Questions and comments

Here you can ask a question about GeForce GTX 960, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.