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
GeForce GTX 900 Series
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| Codename | GM206 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Architecture | Maxwell | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Pipelines | 1024 - unified | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Core Speed | 1127 - 1178 (Boost) MHz | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Memory Speed | 3500 MHz | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Memory Bus Width | 128 Bit | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Memory Type | GDDR5 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Max. Amount of Memory | 4 GB | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Shared Memory | no | |||||||||||||||||||||
| API | DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.4 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Power Consumption | 120 Watt | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Transistor Count | 2.9 Billion | |||||||||||||||||||||
| technology | 28 nm | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Features | CUDA, 3D Vision, PhysX, GeForce Experience, Surround, GameStream, GPU Boost 2.0, Adaptive Vertical Sync, G-SYNC, SLI, H.265 Decoder/Encoder | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Date of Announcement | 22.01.2015 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Link to Manufacturer Page | www.geforce.com | |||||||||||||||||||||
- Average benchmark values for this graphics cardThe 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.
| low | med. | high | ultra | QHD | 4K | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mirror's Edge Catalyst | 159.9 | 111.8 | 55.7 | 50 | 17.1 | |
| Overwatch | 266.7 | 206.6 | 115.7 | 66.9 | 38.6 | |
| Doom | 142.8 | 126.8 | 74 | 68 | 21.6 | |
| Need for Speed 2016 | 118.2 | 104.6 | 68.8 | 51.6 | 21.4 | |
| Hitman 2016 | 73.3 | 71.6 | 37.1 | 36 | 18.7 | |
| The Division | 122.6 | 91.7 | 45 | 33.9 | 16.6 | |
| Far Cry Primal | 115 | 60 | 53 | 37 | 16 | |
| XCOM 2 | 90 | 56.9 | 35.6 | 16.7 | ||
| Rise of the Tomb Raider | 112.6 | 71.3 | 43.7 | 36.1 | 17 | |
| Rainbow Six Siege | 248.5 | 163.6 | 90.2 | 64.5 | 27.2 | |
| Just Cause 3 | 98 | 94.1 | 60.3 | 52.6 | 21.6 | |
| Star Wars Battlefront | 196.9 | 144.9 | 70.1 | 60.8 | 21.2 | |
| Assassin's Creed Syndicate | 82.3 | 70.3 | 47.3 | 18.9 | 16.5 | |
| Fallout 4 | 163.6 | 103.4 | 56.7 | 44.8 | 18.5 | |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 | 146.2 | 117.3 | 63.6 | 55.8 | 20.4 | |
| Anno 2205 | 175.2 | 124.7 | 57 | 20.6 | 20.9 | |
| FIFA 16 | 72 | |||||
| World of Warships | 183.9 | 147.9 | 125.3 | 110.8 | 36.4 | |
| Metal Gear Solid V | 59.9 | 59.9 | 59.9 | 59.9 | 28.2 | |
| Mad Max | 172.4 | 89.2 | 80.5 | 27.6 | ||
| Batman: Arkham Knight | 97 | 88 | 56 | 37 | 18 | |
| The Witcher 3 | 142.8 | 86.6 | 49.8 | 27.7 | ||
| Dirt Rally | 441.4 | 180.3 | 130.9 | 61.3 | 47.1 | |
| GTA V | 147.3 | 146.1 | 69.8 | 28.3 | ||
| Battlefield Hardline | 163.1 | 157.2 | 95.8 | 58.3 | ||
| Evolve | 159.4 | 117.9 | 65.6 | 57.1 | ||
| Dragon Age: Inquisition | 125.7 | 109.4 | 58.4 | 38.6 | ||
| Far Cry 4 | 113.6 | 112.2 | 65.8 | 50.4 | ||
| Assassin's Creed Unity | 97.1 | 75.8 | 47.4 | 21.3 | ||
| Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare | 229.9 | 139.3 | 94.6 | 55.3 | ||
| Civilization: Beyond Earth | 167.8 | 131 | 90.9 | 77.1 | ||
| F1 2014 | 117 | 118 | 118 | 114 | ||
| Ryse: Son of Rome | 67.1 | 64.9 | 54 | 49.2 | ||
| Alien: Isolation | 275 | 217 | 113.3 | 80.9 | ||
| Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor | 194.7 | 131.8 | 71.8 | 48.6 | ||
| Fifa 15 | 332.8 | 259.7 | 210.6 | 103.3 | ||
| Sims 4 | 178.8 | 141.3 | 107 | 98.3 | ||
| GRID: Autosport | 327.5 | 173.4 | 149.1 | 85.5 | ||
| Watch Dogs | 89.7 | 76.4 | 52.8 | 34.4 | ||
| Thief | 108.6 | 100.9 | 91 | 50.6 | ||
| Battlefield 4 | 198.8 | 193.2 | 147.5 | 58 | ||
| Dota 2 | 118.4 | 117.9 | 116.9 | |||
| Metro: Last Light | 111.2 | 106.4 | 95.9 | 56.8 | ||
| BioShock Infinite | 279.2 | 208.9 | 185.4 | 75.8 | ||
| Tomb Raider | 484.4 | 301.2 | 187.5 | 89.1 | ||
| Crysis 3 | 139.7 | 123.9 | 91.7 | 36.1 | ||
| < 30 fps < 60 fps < 120 fps ≥ 120 fps | 1 16 27 | 2 22 20 | 16 21 7 | 6 23 15 1 | | 17 3 2 |
For more games that might be playable and a list of all games and graphics cards visit our Gaming List
» Comparison of GPUs
Detailed list of all laptop GPUs sorted by class and performance.
» Benchmark List
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» Notebook Gaming List
Playable games for each graphics card and their average FPS results.
* Approximate position of the graphics adapter
Top 10 Laptops
Multimedia, Budget Multimedia, Gaming, Budget Gaming, Lightweight Gaming, Business, Budget Office, Workstation, Subnotebooks, Ultrabooks, Chromebooks
under 300 USD/Euros, under 500 USD/Euros, 1,000 USD/Euros, for University Students, Best Displays
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Smartphones, Phablets, ≤6-inch, Camera Smartphones
