NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 vs AMD Radeon RX Vega 7
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960
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The Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 is a desktop graphics card of the upper middle class. It is based on the GM206 Maxwell chip that is produced in 28nm. The GTX960 offers 1024 shader cores, 64 TMUs and 32 ROPs (no deactivated units of the chip). The graphics memory is usually 2 or 4 GB GDDR5 (7 GHz effective clock) connected with a 128 Bit interface.
On average the gaming performance is on a level with the AMD Radeon R9 280 and R9 285. Compared to laptop graphics cards, the 960 is slightly faster than a mobile Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M. The 970M offers more shader cores, but at a lower clock speed. The similar named GeForce GTX 960M for notebooks offers only 640 shader cores and a slightly lower core clock. The performance of the GTX 960 should be suffice for most games in full HD resolution. In our benchmarks only GTA 5 and The Witcher 3 achieved below 30 fps on average (see below for detailed benchmarks).
The GM206 supports CUDA, 3D Vision, PhysX, GeForce Experience, Surround, GameStream, GPU Boost 2.0, Adaptive Vertical Sync / G-SYNC, SLI, DSR, MFAA and Virtual Reality latency improvements. The GTX 960 also includes a H.265 capable de- and encoder as a first.
The power consumption of the GTX 960 on the desktop without load is around 10 Watt and on a similar level to the AMD counterparts. During gaming the 960 reaches around 85-100 Watt (depending on the model) which is a lot less than e.g. the Radeon R9 285 (around 170 Watt) - source tomshardware.com
AMD Radeon RX Vega 7
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The AMD Radeon RX Vega 7 is an integrated GPU for notebooks. It is used in the Ryzen 4000 and Ryzen 5000 mobile APUs. The GPU is based on the Vega architecture (5th generation GCN) and has 7 CUs (= 448 shaders) clocked at up to 1,800 MHz. The iGPU's performance depends on the TDP of an APU (15, 35, 45 W or cTDP), the clocks, the cooling, and the memory configuration). The GPU should benefit from fast dual-channel DDR4-3200 RAM (contrary to DDR4-2133 single-channel, which is also possible).
The Vega architecture offers some improvements over the Polaris generation and now supports DirectX 12 Feature Level 12_1. More information is available in our dedicated article about the Raven Ridge architecture.
The performance should be slightly lower than the older RX Vega 8 GPU (1 CU more, but lower clock speed). That means, only some demanding games of 2019 will run in lowest detail settings. Less demanding games like Fifa 20 or Dirt Rally 2.0 should run in higher settings and 1920 x 1080.
Thanks to the 7 nm process and clever power-saving features, the power consumption is comparatively low (according to AMD), so the iGPU won't look out of place in a slimmer, lighter laptop.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 | AMD Radeon RX Vega 7 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
RX Vega 4000/5000 Series |
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Codename | GM206 | Vega Raven Ridge | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Architecture | Maxwell | Vega | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pipelines | 1024 - unified | 448 - unified | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Core Speed | 1127 - 1178 (Boost) MHz | 1800 (Boost) MHz | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Speed | 3500 MHz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Bus Width | 128 Bit | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Type | GDDR5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Max. Amount of Memory | 4 GB | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Shared Memory | no | no | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
API | DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.4 | DirectX 12_1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Power Consumption | 120 Watt | 15 Watt | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Transistors | 2.9 Billion | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
technology | 28 nm | 7 nm | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Features | CUDA, 3D Vision, PhysX, GeForce Experience, Surround, GameStream, GPU Boost 2.0, Adaptive Vertical Sync, G-SYNC, SLI, H.265 Decoder/Encoder | Tiled Rasterization, Shared Memory (up to Dual-Channel DDR4-2400) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Date of Announcement | 22.01.2015 | 07.01.2020 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Link to Manufacturer Page | www.geforce.com |
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Benchmarks
3DM Vant. Perf. total + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960
specvp12 sw-03 + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960
Cinebench R15 OpenGL 64 Bit + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960
GFXBench T-Rex HD Offscreen C24Z16 + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960
Average Benchmarks NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 → 100% n=30
Average Benchmarks AMD Radeon RX Vega 7 → 95% n=30

* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance
1 This benchmark is not used for the average calculation
Game Benchmarks
The following benchmarks stem from our benchmarks of review laptops. The performance depends on the used graphics memory, clock rate, processor, system settings, drivers, and operating systems. So the results don't have to be representative for all laptops with this GPU. For detailed information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.

F1 24
2024
Baldur's Gate 3
2023
F1 23
2023
Company of Heroes 3
2023
Hogwarts Legacy
2023
Dead Space Remake
2023
The Witcher 3 v4
2023
High On Life
2023
The Quarry
2022
F1 22
2022
Vampire Bloodhunt
2022
Ghostwire Tokyo
2022
Cyberpunk 2077 1.6
2022
GRID Legends
2022
Elden Ring
2022
Dying Light 2
2022
God of War
2022
Halo Infinite
2021
Farming Simulator 22
2021
Forza Horizon 5
2021
Riders Republic
2021
Back 4 Blood
2021
Far Cry 6
2021
Alan Wake Remastered
2021
FIFA 22
2021
New World
2021
Deathloop
2021
F1 2021
2021
Days Gone
2021
Outriders
2021
Hitman 3
2021
Cyberpunk 2077 1.0
2020
Yakuza Like a Dragon
2020
Dirt 5
2020
Watch Dogs Legion
2020
FIFA 21
2020
Star Wars Squadrons
2020
Serious Sam 4
2020
Crysis Remastered
2020
Horizon Zero Dawn
2020
Death Stranding
2020
F1 2020
2020
Valorant
2020
Gears Tactics
2020
Doom Eternal
2020
Hunt Showdown
2020
Escape from Tarkov
2020
Hearthstone
2020
Fall Guys
2020
Need for Speed Heat
2019
FIFA 20
2019
Borderlands 3
2019
Control
2019
F1 2019
2019
Rage 2
2019
Anno 1800
2019
The Division 2
2019
Dirt Rally 2.0
2019
Far Cry New Dawn
2019
Metro Exodus
2019
Apex Legends
2019
Battlefield V
2018
Farming Simulator 19
2018
Forza Horizon 4
2018
Monster Hunter World
2018
Far Cry 5
2018
X-Plane 11.11
2018
Fortnite
2018
Team Fortress 2
2017
Rocket League
2017
Overwatch
2016
Doom
2016
Need for Speed 2016
2016
Hitman 2016
2016
The Division
2016
Far Cry Primal
2016
XCOM 2
2016
Rainbow Six Siege
2015
Just Cause 3
2015
Fallout 4
2015
Anno 2205
2015
World of Warships
2015
Metal Gear Solid V
2015
Mad Max
2015
Dota 2 Reborn
2015
The Witcher 3
2015
Dirt Rally
2015
GTA V
2015
Battlefield Hardline
2015
Evolve
2015
Far Cry 4
2014
F1 2014
2014
Ryse: Son of Rome
2014
Alien: Isolation
2014
Fifa 15
2014
Sims 4
2014
GRID: Autosport
2014
Watch Dogs
2014
Thief
2014
Battlefield 4
2013
Metro: Last Light
2013
BioShock Infinite
2013
Tomb Raider
2013
Crysis 3
2013
Dead Space 3
2013
Counter-Strike: GO
2012
Diablo III
2012
StarCraft 2
2010Average Gaming NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 → 100%
Average Gaming 30-70 fps → 100%
Average Gaming AMD Radeon RX Vega 7 → 44%
Average Gaming 30-70 fps → 42%
For more games that might be playable and a list of all games and graphics cards visit our Gaming List