GeForce GTX 870M vs GTX 960M
Aggregate performance score
We've compared GeForce GTX 960M and GeForce GTX 870M, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.
GTX 870M outperforms GTX 960M by a minimal 2% based on our aggregate benchmark results.
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | 489 | 486 |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Power efficiency | 8.13 | 6.23 |
| Architecture | Maxwell (2014−2017) | Kepler (2012−2018) |
| GPU code name | GM107 | GK104 |
| Market segment | Laptop | Laptop |
| Release date | 13 March 2015 (9 years ago) | 12 March 2014 (10 years ago) |
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 | 640 | 1344 |
| Core clock speed | 1096 MHz | 941 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | 1176 MHz | 967 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 1,870 million | 3,540 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | 28 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 75 Watt | 100 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 47.04 | 108.3 |
| Floating-point processing power | 1.505 TFLOPS | 2.599 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 16 | 24 |
| TMUs | 40 | 112 |
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).
| Laptop size | medium sized | large |
| Bus support | PCI Express 3.0 | PCI Express 2.0, PCI Express 3.0 |
| Interface | MXM-B (3.0) | MXM-B (3.0) |
| Supplementary power connectors | no data | None |
| 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 | 3 GB |
| Standard memory configuration | no data | GDDR5 |
| Memory bus width | 128 Bit | 192 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 2500 MHz | Up to 2500 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 80 GB/s | 120.0 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 Connectors | No outputs | No outputs |
| eDP 1.2 signal support | no data | Up to 3840x2160 |
| LVDS signal support | no data | Up to 1920x1200 |
| VGA аnalog display support | + | Up to 2048x1536 |
| DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support | + | Up to 3840x2160 |
| HDMI | + | + |
| HDCP content protection | - | + |
| 7.1 channel HD audio on HDMI | - | + |
| TrueHD and DTS-HD audio bitstreaming | - | + |
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 | no data |
| GameWorks | + | - |
| H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder | + | + |
| Optimus | + | + |
| BatteryBoost | + | - |
| Ansel | + | no data |
API compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 12 (11_0) | 12 (11_0) |
| Shader Model | 5.1 | 5.1 |
| OpenGL | 4.5 | 4.5 |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | 1.1 |
| Vulkan | 1.1.126 | 1.1.126 |
| CUDA | + | + |
Synthetic benchmark performance
Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.
Combined synthetic benchmark score
This is our combined benchmark 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. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Unigine Heaven 3.0
This is an old DirectX 11 benchmark using Unigine, a 3D game engine by eponymous Russian company. It displays a fantasy medieval town sprawling over several flying islands. Version 3.0 was released in 2012, and in 2013 it was superseded by Heaven 4.0, which introduced several slight improvements, including a newer version of Unigine.
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.
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 | 95
+0%
| 95−100
+0%
|
| Full HD | 34
−32.4%
| 45
+32.4%
|
| 1440p | 15
+7.1%
| 14−16
−7.1%
|
| 4K | 14
−35.7%
| 19
+35.7%
|
FPS performance in popular games
Full HD
Low Preset
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 14−16
+0%
|
14−16
+0%
|
Full HD
Medium Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 25
+13.6%
|
21−24
−13.6%
|
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 12−14
+0%
|
12−14
+0%
|
| Battlefield 5 | 30
+11.1%
|
27−30
−11.1%
|
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 18−20
+0%
|
18−20
+0%
|
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 14−16
+0%
|
14−16
+0%
|
| Far Cry 5 | 28
+40%
|
20−22
−40%
|
| Far Cry New Dawn | 31
+24%
|
24−27
−24%
|
| Forza Horizon 4 | 84
+40%
|
60−65
−40%
|
| Hitman 3 | 16−18
+0%
|
16−18
+0%
|
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 50−55
+0%
|
50−55
+0%
|
| Metro Exodus | 31
+10.7%
|
27−30
−10.7%
|
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 24−27
−4.2%
|
24−27
+4.2%
|
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 48
+65.5%
|
27−30
−65.5%
|
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 55−60
−1.7%
|
60−65
+1.7%
|
Full HD
High Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 31
+40.9%
|
21−24
−40.9%
|
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 12−14
+0%
|
12−14
+0%
|
| Battlefield 5 | 23
−17.4%
|
27−30
+17.4%
|
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 18−20
+0%
|
18−20
+0%
|
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 14−16
+0%
|
14−16
+0%
|
| Far Cry 5 | 24
+20%
|
20−22
−20%
|
| Far Cry New Dawn | 23
−8.7%
|
24−27
+8.7%
|
| Forza Horizon 4 | 71
+18.3%
|
60−65
−18.3%
|
| Hitman 3 | 16−18
+0%
|
16−18
+0%
|
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 50−55
+0%
|
50−55
+0%
|
| Metro Exodus | 26
−7.7%
|
27−30
+7.7%
|
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 24−27
−4.2%
|
24−27
+4.2%
|
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 27−30
+0%
|
27−30
+0%
|
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 73
−20.5%
|
88
+20.5%
|
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 55−60
−1.7%
|
60−65
+1.7%
|
Full HD
Ultra Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 11
−100%
|
21−24
+100%
|
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 12−14
+0%
|
12−14
+0%
|
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 18−20
+0%
|
18−20
+0%
|
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 14−16
+0%
|
14−16
+0%
|
| Far Cry 5 | 18
−11.1%
|
20−22
+11.1%
|
| Forza Horizon 4 | 25
−140%
|
60−65
+140%
|
| Hitman 3 | 16−18
+0%
|
16−18
+0%
|
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 50−55
+0%
|
50−55
+0%
|
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 27−30
+0%
|
27−30
+0%
|
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 14
−7.1%
|
15
+7.1%
|
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 55−60
−1.7%
|
60−65
+1.7%
|
Full HD
Epic Preset
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 24−27
−4.2%
|
24−27
+4.2%
|
1440p
High Preset
| Battlefield 5 | 14
−21.4%
|
16−18
+21.4%
|
| Far Cry New Dawn | 15
+7.1%
|
14−16
−7.1%
|
1440p
Ultra Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 8
−12.5%
|
9−10
+12.5%
|
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 4−5
−25%
|
5−6
+25%
|
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 9−10
+0%
|
9−10
+0%
|
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 4−5
+0%
|
4−5
+0%
|
| Far Cry 5 | 10
+0%
|
10−11
+0%
|
| Forza Horizon 4 | 45
+21.6%
|
35−40
−21.6%
|
| Hitman 3 | 12−14
+0%
|
12−14
+0%
|
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 18−20
−5.6%
|
18−20
+5.6%
|
| Metro Exodus | 15
+25%
|
12−14
−25%
|
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 10−11
+0%
|
10−11
+0%
|
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 8−9
+0%
|
8−9
+0%
|
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 55−60
−1.8%
|
55−60
+1.8%
|
1440p
Epic Preset
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 14−16
+0%
|
14−16
+0%
|
4K
High Preset
| Battlefield 5 | 6
−33.3%
|
8−9
+33.3%
|
| Far Cry New Dawn | 7
+16.7%
|
6−7
−16.7%
|
| Hitman 3 | 5−6
+0%
|
5−6
+0%
|
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 35−40
−2.9%
|
35−40
+2.9%
|
| Metro Exodus | 8
+14.3%
|
7−8
−14.3%
|
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 10
+66.7%
|
6−7
−66.7%
|
4K
Ultra Preset
| Assassin's Creed Odyssey | 5−6
+0%
|
5−6
+0%
|
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 4−5
+0%
|
4−5
+0%
|
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 4−5
+0%
|
4−5
+0%
|
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 1−2
+0%
|
1−2
+0%
|
| Far Cry 5 | 4
−25%
|
5−6
+25%
|
| Forza Horizon 4 | 10−12
+0%
|
10−12
+0%
|
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 5−6
+0%
|
5−6
+0%
|
| Watch Dogs: Legion | 3−4
+0%
|
3−4
+0%
|
4K
Epic Preset
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 9−10
+0%
|
9−10
+0%
|
This is how GTX 960M and GTX 870M compete in popular games:
- A tie in 900p
- GTX 870M is 32% faster in 1080p
- GTX 960M is 7% faster in 1440p
- GTX 870M is 36% faster in 4K
Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:
- in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, with 4K resolution and the High Preset, the GTX 960M is 67% faster.
- in Forza Horizon 4, with 1080p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the GTX 870M is 140% faster.
All in all, in popular games:
- GTX 960M is ahead in 16 tests (22%)
- GTX 870M is ahead in 22 tests (31%)
- there's a draw in 34 tests (47%)
Pros & cons summary
| Performance score | 8.75 | 8.94 |
| Recency | 13 March 2015 | 12 March 2014 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 4 GB | 3 GB |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 75 Watt | 100 Watt |
GTX 960M has an age advantage of 1 year, a 33.3% higher maximum VRAM amount, and 33.3% lower power consumption.
GTX 870M, on the other hand, has a 2.2% higher aggregate performance score.
Given the minimal performance differences, no clear winner can be declared between GeForce GTX 960M and GeForce GTX 870M.
Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
Comparisons with similar GPUs
We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.
