NVIDIA started GeForce GTX 970 sales 19 September 2014 at a recommended price of $329 . 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 256 Bit memory interface this creates a bandwidth of 224 GB/s.

Compatibility-wise, this is dual-width card attached via PCIe 3.0 x16 interface. Its manufacturer default version has a length of 10.5" (26.7 cm). Two 6-pins power connectors are required, and power consumption is at 145 Watt.

General info

Some basic facts about GeForce GTX 970: architecture, market segment, release date etc.

Place in performance ranking	199
Place by popularity	84
Value for money	23.07
Architecture	Maxwell (2014−2018)
GPU code name	GM204
Market segment	Desktop
Release date	19 September 2014 (9 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$329
Current price	$105 (0.3x MSRP)	of 168889 (A100 PCIe 80 GB)

Value for money

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

Technical specs

GeForce GTX 970's specs such as number of shaders, GPU base clock, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of GeForce GTX 970's performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider its benchmark and gaming test results.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	1664	of 20480 (Data Center GPU Max NEXT)
CUDA cores	1664
Core clock speed	1050 MHz	of 2610 (Radeon RX 6500 XT)
Boost clock speed	1178 MHz	of 3599 (Radeon RX 7990 XTX)
Number of transistors	5,200 million	of 14400 (GeForce GTX 1070 SLI Mobile)
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	of 4 (Radeon 780M)
Power consumption (TDP)	145 Watt	of 2400 (Data Center GPU Max Subsystem)
Maximum GPU temperature	98 °C
Texture fill rate	109 billion/sec	of 969.9 (H100 SXM5 96 GB)
Floating-point performance	3,920 gflops	of 16384 (Radeon Pro Duo)

Size and compatibility

This section provides details about the physical dimensions of GeForce GTX 970 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 support	PCI Express 3.0
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16
Length	10.5" (26.7 cm)
Height	4.376" (11.1 cm)
Width	2-slot
Recommended system power (PSU)	500 Watt
Supplementary power connectors	2x 6-pins
SLI options	+

Memory

Parameters of memory installed on GeForce GTX 970: 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 type	GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	of 192 (Radeon Instinct MI300X)
Memory bus width	256 Bit	of 8192 (Radeon Instinct MI250X)
Memory clock speed	7.0 GB/s	of 23000 (GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER)
Memory bandwidth	224 GB/s	of 3276 (Aldebaran)
Shared memory	-

Video outputs and ports

Types and number of video connectors present on GeForce GTX 970. 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 Connectors	Dual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2
Multi monitor support	4 displays
HDMI	+
HDCP	+
Maximum VGA resolution	2048x1536
G-SYNC support	+
Audio input for HDMI	Internal

Technologies

Technological solutions and APIs supported by GeForce GTX 970. You'll probably need this information if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

GameStream	+
GeForce ShadowPlay	+
GPU Boost	2.0
GameWorks	+

API support

APIs supported by GeForce GTX 970, sometimes including their particular versions.

DirectX	12 (12_1)
Shader Model	6.4
OpenGL	4.4	of 4.6 (GeForce RTX 4090)
OpenCL	1.2
Vulkan	1.1.126
CUDA	+

Benchmark performance

Synthetic benchmark performance of GeForce GTX 970. 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 970 24.91

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 970 9645

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 970 42263

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 970 16033

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 970 11954

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 970 72819

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 970 27020

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 970 422295

GeekBench 5 Vulkan

Benchmark coverage: 5%

GTX 970 32306

GeekBench 5 CUDA

Benchmark coverage: 4%

GTX 970 25897

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 970 79

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 970 1543

Gaming performance

Let's see how good GeForce GTX 970 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 HD	82
1440p	54
4K	38

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

40−45

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	45−50
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	40−45
Battlefield 5	80−85
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	65−70
Cyberpunk 2077	40−45
Far Cry 5	65−70
Far Cry New Dawn	65−70
Forza Horizon 4	80−85
Hitman 3	75−80
Horizon Zero Dawn	50−55
Red Dead Redemption 2	40−45
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	55−60
Watch Dogs: Legion	45−50

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	45−50
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	40−45
Battlefield 5	80−85
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	65−70
Cyberpunk 2077	40−45
Far Cry 5	65−70
Far Cry New Dawn	65−70
Forza Horizon 4	80−85
Hitman 3	75−80
Horizon Zero Dawn	50−55
Metro Exodus	39
Red Dead Redemption 2	40−45
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	55−60
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	81
Watch Dogs: Legion	45−50

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	45−50
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	40−45
Battlefield 5	48
Cyberpunk 2077	40−45
Far Cry 5	65−70
Far Cry New Dawn	65−70
Forza Horizon 4	80−85
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	43
Watch Dogs: Legion	45−50

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	35−40
Hitman 3	40−45
Horizon Zero Dawn	30−35
Metro Exodus	24
Red Dead Redemption 2	18−20
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	30−35

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	27−30
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	24−27
Battlefield 5	55−60
Cyberpunk 2077	16−18
Far Cry 5	40−45
Far Cry New Dawn	45−50
Forza Horizon 4	50−55
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	30−33
Watch Dogs: Legion	18−20

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	18−20
Hitman 3	21−24
Horizon Zero Dawn	16−18
Metro Exodus	13
Red Dead Redemption 2	12−14
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	16−18
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	29

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	16−18
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	14−16
Battlefield 5	20
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7
Far Cry 5	21−24
Far Cry New Dawn	24−27
Forza Horizon 4	35−40
Watch Dogs: Legion	10−12

Relative performance

GeForce GTX 970's performance compared to nearest competitors among desktop video cards.

GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER 105.18

Radeon R9 FURY X 103.85

Arc A770 103.53

GeForce GTX 970 100

Radeon R9 Fury 99.44

GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB 99.4

GeForce GTX 780 Ti 98.68

AMD equivalent

According to our data, the closest AMD alternative to GeForce GTX 970 is Radeon R9 Fury, which is slower by 1% and lower by 2 positions in our ranking.