GeForce GTX 950 vs 970

Place in performance ranking	200	351
Place by popularity	56	94
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	23.70	6.03
Architecture	Maxwell (2014−2018)	Maxwell (2014−2018)
GPU code name	GM204	GM206
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	19 September 2014 (9 years ago)	20 August 2015 (8 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$329	$159
Current price	$105 (0.3x MSRP)	$12.88 (0.1x MSRP)

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

GTX 970 has 293% better value for money than GTX 950.

Detailed specifications

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	1664	768
CUDA cores	1664	768
Core clock speed	1050 MHz	1024 MHz
Boost clock speed	1178 MHz	1188 MHz
Number of transistors	5,200 million	2,940 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	145 Watt	90 Watt
Maximum GPU temperature	98 °C	no data
Texture fill rate	109 billion/sec	49.2 billion/sec
Floating-point performance	3,920 gflops	1,825 gflops

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 support	PCI Express 3.0	PCI Express 3.0
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 3.0 x16
Length	10.5" (26.7 cm)	7.938" (20.2 cm)
Height	4.376" (11.1 cm)	4.376" (11.1 cm)
Width	2-slot	2-slot
Recommended system power (PSU)	500 Watt	350 Watt
Supplementary power connectors	2x 6-pins	1x 6-pins
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	2 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	7.0 GB/s	6.6 GB/s
Memory bandwidth	224 GB/s	105.6 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	Dual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2	Dual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2
Multi monitor support	4 displays	4 displays
HDMI	+	+
HDCP	+	+
Maximum VGA resolution	2048x1536	2048x1536
G-SYNC support	+	+
Audio input for HDMI	Internal	Internal

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	2.0
GameWorks	+	+

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (12_1)	12 (12_1)
Shader Model	6.4	6.4
OpenGL	4.4	4.5
OpenCL	1.2	1.2
Vulkan	1.1.126	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 970 24.97
+80.7%

GTX 950 13.82

970 outperforms 950 by 81% based on our aggregate 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 970 9643
+80.6%

GTX 950 5338

970 outperforms 950 by 81% 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 970 16033
+92%

GTX 950 8351

970 outperforms 950 by 92% 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 970 11954
+92.6%

GTX 950 6208

970 outperforms 950 by 93% in 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics.

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
+94.4%

GTX 950 37454

970 outperforms 950 by 94% in 3DMark Cloud Gate GPU.

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 26897
+67.2%

GTX 950 16084

970 outperforms 950 by 67% in GeekBench 5 OpenCL.

GeekBench 5 Vulkan

Benchmark coverage: 5%

GTX 970 32372
+104%

GTX 950 15899

970 outperforms 950 by 104% in GeekBench 5 Vulkan.

GeekBench 5 CUDA

Benchmark coverage: 4%

GTX 970 25897
+63.8%

GTX 950 15806

970 outperforms 950 by 64% in GeekBench 5 CUDA.

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
+92.7%

GTX 950 41

970 outperforms 950 by 93% 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:

Full HD	83 +62.7%	51 −62.7%
1440p	59 +96.7%	30−35 −96.7%
4K	40 +90.5%	21 −90.5%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

40−45

no data

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	45−50	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	40−45	no data
Battlefield 5	80−85	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	50−55	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	40−45	no data
Far Cry 5	55−60	no data
Far Cry New Dawn	65−70	no data
Forza Horizon 4	100−110	no data
Hitman 3	50−55	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	95−100	no data
Metro Exodus	80−85	no data
Red Dead Redemption 2	65−70	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	85−90	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	70−75	no data

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	45−50	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	40−45	no data
Battlefield 5	80−85	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	52	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	40−45	no data
Far Cry 5	55−60	no data
Far Cry New Dawn	29	no data
Forza Horizon 4	100−110	no data
Hitman 3	50−55	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	95−100	no data
Metro Exodus	35	no data
Red Dead Redemption 2	65−70	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	85−90	no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	81	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	70−75	no data

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	45−50	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	40−45	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	36	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	40−45	no data
Far Cry 5	55−60	no data
Forza Horizon 4	100−110	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	95−100	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	85−90	no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	43	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	70−75	no data

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

65−70

no data

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	45−50	no data
Far Cry New Dawn	46	no data

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	24−27	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	24−27	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	30−35	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	16−18	no data
Far Cry 5	40−45	no data
Forza Horizon 4	50−55	no data
Hitman 3	30−33	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	50−55	no data
Metro Exodus	45−50	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	55−60	no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	30−35	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	18−20	no data

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

40−45

no data

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	24−27	no data
Far Cry New Dawn	20	no data
Hitman 3	20−22	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	27−30	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	16−18	no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	29	no data

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	14−16	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	14−16	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	14−16	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7	no data
Far Cry 5	14−16	no data
Forza Horizon 4	30−35	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	27−30	no data
Metro Exodus	24−27	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	10−12	no data

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

21−24

no data

This is how GTX 970 and GTX 950 compete in popular games:

GTX 970 is 63% faster in 1080p
GTX 970 is 97% faster in 1440p
GTX 970 is 90% faster in 4K

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	24.97	13.82
Recency	19 September 2014	20 August 2015
Cost	$329	$159
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	2 GB
Power consumption (TDP)	145 Watt	90 Watt