GeForce GTX 960M vs 480

Place in performance ranking	395	455
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Value for money	1.27	1.43
Architecture	Fermi (2010−2014)	Maxwell (2014−2018)
GPU code name	GF100	N16P-GX
Market segment	Desktop	Laptop
Release date	7 December 2010 (13 years old)	12 March 2015 (9 years old)
Launch price (MSRP)	$499	no data
Current price	$15.99 (0x MSRP)	$799

Value for money

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

GTX 960M has 13% better value for money than GTX 480.

Technical specs

General performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider their benchmark and gaming test results. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	480	640
CUDA cores	480	640
Core clock speed	700 MHz	1096 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	1202 MHz
Number of transistors	3,100 million	1,870 million
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm	28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	295 Watt	75 Watt
Maximum GPU temperature	105 °C	no data
Texture fill rate	42 billion/sec	47.04
Floating-point performance	1,345.0 gflops	1,505 gflops

Size and compatibility

Information on GeForce GTX 480 and GeForce GTX 960M compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop video cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility). For notebook video cards it's notebook size, connection slot and bus, if the video card is inserted into a slot instead of being soldered to the notebook motherboard.

Laptop size	no data	medium sized
Bus support	16x PCI-E 2.0	PCI Express 3.0
Interface	PCIe 2.0 x16	MXM-B (3.0)
Length	10.5" (267 mm) (26.7 cm)	no data
Height	4.376" (111 mm) (11.1 cm)	no data
Width	2-slot	no data
Supplementary power connectors	6-pin & 8-pin	no data
SLI options	+	+

Memory

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	1536 MB	4 GB
Memory bus width	384 Bit	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	1848 MHz (3696 data rate)	2500 MHz
Memory bandwidth	177.4 GB/s	80 GB/s
Shared memory	-	-

Video outputs and ports

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 Connectors	Two Dual Link DVI, Mini HDMI	No outputs
Multi monitor support	+	no data
VGA аnalog display support	no data	+
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support	no data	+
HDMI	+	+
HDCP	+	no data
Maximum VGA resolution	2048x1536	no data
Audio input for HDMI	Internal	no data

Technologies

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

GameStream	no data	+
GeForce ShadowPlay	no data	+
GPU Boost	no data	2.0
GameWorks	no data	+
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder	no data	+
Optimus	no data	+
BatteryBoost	no data	+
Ansel	no data	+

API support

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

DirectX	12 (11_0)	12 (11_0)
Shader Model	5.1	5.1
OpenGL	4.2	4.5
OpenCL	1.1	1.2
Vulkan	N/A	1.1.126
CUDA	+	+

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark performance comparison. 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.

GTX 480 10.59
+20.6%

GTX 960M 8.78

480 outperforms 960M by 21% based on our aggregated benchmark results.

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 480 4102
+20.6%

GTX 960M 3400

480 outperforms 960M by 21% in Passmark.

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 480 5014

GTX 960M 5278
+5.3%

960M outperforms 480 by 5% in 3DMark 11 Performance GPU.

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 480 3650

GTX 960M 4318
+18.3%

960M outperforms 480 by 18% in 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics.

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 480 13118
+22.5%

GTX 960M 10711

480 outperforms 960M by 22% in GeekBench 5 OpenCL.

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 480 54
+68.8%

GTX 960M 32

480 outperforms 960M by 69% in Octane Render OctaneBench.

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Average FPS across all PC games

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

900p	110−120 +15.8%	95 −15.8%
Full HD	40−45 +11.1%	36 −11.1%
1440p	18−20 +20%	15 −20%
4K	14−16 +7.7%	13 −7.7%

Performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

16−18
+14.3%

14−16

−14.3%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	21−24 −13.6%	25 +13.6%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	16−18 +23.1%	12−14 −23.1%
Battlefield 5	35−40 −5.6%	38 +5.6%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	27−30 +16.7%	24−27 −16.7%
Cyberpunk 2077	16−18 +14.3%	14−16 −14.3%
Far Cry 5	27−30 −3.7%	28 +3.7%
Far Cry New Dawn	27−30 +3.7%	27 −3.7%
Forza Horizon 4	35−40 +5.7%	35 −5.7%
Hitman 3	27−30 +22.7%	21−24 −22.7%
Horizon Zero Dawn	21−24 +22.2%	18−20 −22.2%
Red Dead Redemption 2	18−20 +20%	14−16 −20%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	21−24 −9.1%	24 +9.1%
Watch Dogs: Legion	18−20 +26.7%	14−16 −26.7%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	21−24 +15.8%	19 −15.8%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	16−18 +23.1%	12−14 −23.1%
Battlefield 5	35−40 +16.1%	31 −16.1%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	27−30 +16.7%	24−27 −16.7%
Cyberpunk 2077	16−18 +14.3%	14−16 −14.3%
Far Cry 5	27−30 +8%	25 −8%
Far Cry New Dawn	27−30 +12%	25 −12%
Forza Horizon 4	35−40 +19.4%	31 −19.4%
Hitman 3	27−30 +22.7%	21−24 −22.7%
Horizon Zero Dawn	21−24 +22.2%	18−20 −22.2%
Metro Exodus	16−18 +33.3%	12 −33.3%
Red Dead Redemption 2	18−20 +20%	14−16 −20%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	21−24 +15.8%	19 −15.8%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	21−24 −9.1%	24 +9.1%
Watch Dogs: Legion	18−20 +26.7%	14−16 −26.7%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	21−24 +100%	11 −100%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	16−18 +23.1%	12−14 −23.1%
Battlefield 5	35−40 +38.5%	26 −38.5%
Cyberpunk 2077	16−18 +14.3%	14−16 −14.3%
Far Cry 5	27−30 +17.4%	23 −17.4%
Far Cry New Dawn	27−30 +21.7%	23 −21.7%
Forza Horizon 4	35−40 +48%	25 −48%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	21−24 +57.1%	14 −57.1%
Watch Dogs: Legion	18−20 +26.7%	14−16 −26.7%

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	14−16 +15.4%	12−14 −15.4%
Hitman 3	16−18 +14.3%	14−16 −14.3%
Horizon Zero Dawn	16−18 +6.7%	14−16 −6.7%
Metro Exodus	9−10 +28.6%	7−8 −28.6%
Red Dead Redemption 2	7−8 +16.7%	6−7 −16.7%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	14−16 +27.3%	11 −27.3%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−11 +25%	8 −25%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	7−8 +75%	4−5 −75%
Battlefield 5	18−20 +11.8%	17 −11.8%
Cyberpunk 2077	5−6 +25%	4−5 −25%
Far Cry 5	16−18 +13.3%	15 −13.3%
Far Cry New Dawn	18−20 +20%	15 −20%
Forza Horizon 4	18−20 +5.6%	18 −5.6%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	10−11 +25%	8−9 −25%
Watch Dogs: Legion	5−6 +25%	4−5 −25%

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	7−8 +16.7%	6−7 −16.7%
Hitman 3	10−11 +25%	8−9 −25%
Horizon Zero Dawn	9−10 +12.5%	8−9 −12.5%
Metro Exodus	4−5 +33.3%	3−4 −33.3%
Red Dead Redemption 2	6−7 +20%	5−6 −20%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	6−7 +50%	4−5 −50%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	8−9 −25%	10 +25%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	6−7 +20%	5−6 −20%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	5−6 +25%	4−5 −25%
Battlefield 5	9−10 +200%	3 −200%
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Far Cry 5	9−10 +28.6%	7 −28.6%
Far Cry New Dawn	10−12 +83.3%	6 −83.3%
Forza Horizon 4	12−14 +30%	10−11 −30%
Watch Dogs: Legion	3−4 +50%	2−3 −50%

This is how GTX 480 and GTX 960M compete in popular games:

900p resolution:

GTX 480 is 15.8% faster than GTX 960M

1080p resolution:

GTX 480 is 11.1% faster than GTX 960M

1440p resolution:

GTX 480 is 20% faster than GTX 960M

4K resolution:

GTX 480 is 7.7% faster than GTX 960M

Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:

in Battlefield 5, with 4K resolution and the Ultra Preset, the GTX 480 is 200% faster than the GTX 960M.
in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, with 4K resolution and the High Preset, the GTX 960M is 25% faster than the GTX 480.

All in all, in popular games:

GTX 480 is ahead in 61 test (90%)
GTX 960M is ahead in 6 tests (9%)
there's a draw in 1 test (1%)

Advantages and disadvantages

Performance score	10.59	8.78
Recency	7 December 2010	12 March 2015
Maximum RAM amount	1536 MB	4 GB
Chip lithography	40 nm	28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	295 Watt	75 Watt