NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 vs AMD Radeon R9 380X

#ad
Buy
VS
#ad
Buy

Combined performance score

R9 380X
16.07
+2.7%

Radeon R9 380X outperforms GeForce GTX 960 by 3% in our combined benchmark results.

General info

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

Place in performance ranking306315
Place by popularitynot in top-10053
Value for money7.082.12
ArchitectureGCN 3.0 (2014−2017)Maxwell (2014−2018)
GPU code nameAntiguaGM206
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Designreferenceno data
Release date19 November 2015 (8 years old)22 January 2015 (9 years old)
Launch price (MSRP)$229 $199
Current price$11.81 (0.1x MSRP)$440 (2.2x MSRP)
Value for money

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

R9 380X has 234% better value for money than GTX 960.

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 cores20481024
CUDA coresno data1024
Compute units32no data
Core clock speedno data1127 MHz
Boost clock speed970 MHz1178 MHz
Number of transistors5,000 million2,940 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)190 Watt120 Watt
Texture fill rate124.272 billion/sec
Floating-point performance3,973 gflops2,413 gflops

Size and 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 supportPCIe 3.0PCI Express 3.0
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x16
Length221 mm9.5" (24.1 cm)
Heightno data4.376" (11.1 cm)
Width2-slot2-slot
Form factorfull height / full lengthno data
Recommended system power (PSU)no data400 Watt
Supplementary power connectors​2 x 6-pin1x 6-pins
SLI optionsno data+
Bridgeless CrossFire1no data

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 typeGDDR5GDDR5
High bandwidth memory (HBM)-no data
Maximum RAM amount4 GB4 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit128 Bit
Memory clock speed970 MHz7.0 GB/s
Memory bandwidth182.4 GB/s112 GB/s
Shared memoryno data-

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 Connectors2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPortDual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2
Multi monitor supportno data4 displays
Eyefinity1no data
Number of Eyefinity displays6no data
HDMI++
HDCPno data+
Maximum VGA resolutionno data2048x1536
DisplayPort support+no data
G-SYNC supportno data+
Audio input for HDMIno dataInternal

Technologies

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

AppAcceleration-no data
CrossFire1no data
Enduro-no data
FRTC1no data
FreeSync1no data
HD3D+no data
LiquidVR1no data
PowerTune+no data
TrueAudio+no data
ZeroCore+no data
VCE+no data
DDMA audio+no data
GameStreamno data+
GeForce ShadowPlayno data+
GPU Boostno data2.0
GameWorksno data+

API support

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

DirectXDirectX® 1212 (12_1)
Shader Model6.36.4
OpenGL4.54.4
OpenCL2.01.2
Vulkan++
Mantle+no data
CUDAno data+

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.

R9 380X 16.07
+2.7%
GTX 960 15.65

Radeon R9 380X outperforms GeForce GTX 960 by 3% in our combined 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%

R9 380X 6229
+2.7%
GTX 960 6064

Radeon R9 380X outperforms GeForce GTX 960 by 3% in Passmark.

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%

R9 380X 9510
+20.1%
GTX 960 7916

Radeon R9 380X outperforms GeForce GTX 960 by 20% in 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics.

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 HD65−70
+0%
65
+0%
4K27−30
−7.4%
29
+7.4%

Advantages and disadvantages


Performance score 16.07 15.65
Recency 19 November 2015 22 January 2015
Cost $229 $199
Power consumption (TDP) 190 Watt 120 Watt

We couldn't decide between Radeon R9 380X and GeForce GTX 960. The differences in performance seem too small.


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

User ratings

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


AMD Radeon R9 380X
Radeon R9 380X
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960
GeForce GTX 960

Similar GPU comparisons

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

User ratings: view and submit

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


3.8 166 votes

Rate AMD Radeon R9 380X on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
4 3264 votes

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

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Questions and comments

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