GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Max-Q vs GTX 960

VS

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking341not rated
Place by popularity59not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation8.87no data
Power efficiency9.15no data
ArchitectureMaxwell 2.0 (2014−2019)Ampere (2020−2024)
GPU code nameGM206GA107
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Release date22 January 2015 (9 years ago)11 May 2021 (3 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$199 no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

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 cores10242560
Core clock speed1127 MHz735 MHz
Boost clock speed1178 MHz1035 MHz
Number of transistors2,940 million8,700 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)120 Watt75 Watt
Texture fill rate75.3982.80
Floating-point processing power2.413 TFLOPS5.299 TFLOPS
ROPs3232
TMUs6480
Tensor Coresno data80
Ray Tracing Coresno data20

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 supportPCI Express 3.0no data
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 4.0 x8
Length241 mmno data
Height4.376" (11.1 cm)no data
Width2-slotno data
Recommended system power (PSU)400 Wattno data
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pinNone
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 typeGDDR5GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount4 GB4 GB
Memory bus width128 Bit128 Bit
Memory clock speed7.0 GB/s1375 MHz
Memory bandwidth112 GB/s176.0 GB/s
Shared memory--

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display ConnectorsDual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2Portable Device Dependent
Multi monitor support4 displaysno data
HDMI+-
HDCP+-
Maximum VGA resolution2048x1536no data
G-SYNC support+-
Audio input for HDMIInternalno data

Supported technologies

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

GameStream+-
GeForce ShadowPlay+-
GPU Boost2.0no data
GameWorks+-

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 (12_1)12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model6.46.7
OpenGL4.44.6
OpenCL1.23.0
Vulkan+1.3
CUDA+8.6

Pros & cons summary


Recency 22 January 2015 11 May 2021
Chip lithography 28 nm 8 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 120 Watt 75 Watt

RTX 3050 Ti Max-Q has an age advantage of 6 years, a 250% more advanced lithography process, and 60% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between GeForce GTX 960 and GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Max-Q. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that GeForce GTX 960 is a desktop card while GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Max-Q is a notebook one.


Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

Vote for your favorite

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite graphics card.


NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960
GeForce GTX 960
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Max-Q
GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Max-Q

Comparisons with similar GPUs

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


4 3770 votes

Rate GeForce GTX 960 on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
3.5 230 votes

Rate GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Max-Q on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Questions & comments

Here you can ask a question about this comparison, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.