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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960

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

ManufacturerNVIDIA
GeForce GTX 900 Series
GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop) (compare) 4096 @ 1126 - 1228 (Boost) MHz2x 256 Bit @ 3500 MHz
GeForce GTX 980 Ti (compare) 2816 @ 1000 - 1200 (Boost) MHz256 Bit @ 7000 MHz
GeForce GTX 980 (compare) 2048 @ 1126 - 1216 (Boost) MHz256 Bit @ 3500 MHz
GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop) (compare) 2048 @ 1126 - 1228 (Boost) MHz256 Bit @ 3500 MHz
GeForce GTX 970 (compare) 1664 @ 1050 - 1178 (Boost) MHz224 + 32 Bit @ 3500 MHz
GeForce GTX 960 1024 @ 1127 - 1178 (Boost) MHz128 Bit @ 3500 MHz
GeForce GTX 950 (compare) 768 @ 1024 - 1188 (Boost) MHz128 Bit @ 3300 MHz
CodenameGM206
ArchitectureMaxwell
Pipelines1024 - unified
Core Speed1127 - 1178 (Boost) MHz
Memory Speed3500 MHz
Memory Bus Width128 Bit
Memory TypeGDDR5
Max. Amount of Memory4096 MB
Shared Memoryno
DirectXDirectX 12
Transistor Count2940 Million
technology28 nm
FeaturesCUDA, 3D Vision, PhysX, GeForce Experience, Surround, GameStream, GPU Boost 2.0, Adaptive Vertical Sync, G-SYNC, SLI, H.265 Decoder/Encoder
Date of Announcement22.01.2015
Link to Manufacturer Pagehttp://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-...

Benchmarks

3DMark - Ice Storm Unlimited Graphics Score 1280x720 offscreen
310860 Points (59%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - Ice Storm Extreme Graphics 1920x1080
240789 Points (33%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - Cloud Gate Standard Score 1280x720
min: 16785     avg: 19250     median: 19250 (33%)     max: 21715 Points
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - Cloud Gate Standard Graphics 1280x720
min: 49088     avg: 49917.5     median: 49917.5 (27%)     max: 50747 Points
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - Fire Strike Score 1920x1080
min: 6547     avg: 6698.5     median: 6698.5 (25%)     max: 6850 Points
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - Fire Strike Graphics 1920x1080
min: 7912     avg: 7915.5     median: 7915.5 (19%)     max: 7919 Points
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - Ice Storm Standard Graphics 1280x720
min: 284250     avg: 305784     median: 305784 (41%)     max: 327317 Points
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 11 - Performance 1280x720
min: 9571     avg: 9875.5     median: 9875.5 (32%)     max: 10180 points
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 11 - Performance GPU 1280x720
min: 10683     avg: 10767.5     median: 10767.5 (21%)     max: 10852 points
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   - Hide comparison chart
3DMark Vantage
P Result 1280x1024 +
P GPU no PhysX 1280x1024 +
3DMark 06 Standard 1280x1024 +
SPECviewperf 12
Solidworks (sw-03) 1900x1060 +
Siemens NX (snx-02) 1900x1060 +
Showcase (showcase-01) 1900x1060 +
Medical (medical-01) 1900x1060 +
Maya (maya-04) 1900x1060 +
Energy (energy-01) 1900x1060 +
Creo (creo-01) 1900x1060 +
Catia (catia-04) 1900x1060 +
Cinebench R10 Shading 32Bit +
Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64Bit +
Cinebench R15
OpenGL 64Bit +
Ref. Match 64Bit +
GFXBench (DX / GLBenchmark) 2.7
T-Rex HD Offscreen C24Z16 1920x1080 +
GFXBench 3.0 - Manhattan Offscreen OGL off screen
264.3 fps (48%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
LuxMark v2.0 64Bit - Room GPUs-only
1179 Samples/s (22%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
LuxMark v2.0 64Bit - Sala GPUs-only
1836 Samples/s (18%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
ComputeMark v2.1 - Normal, Score 1024x600
5743 Points (26%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card
* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance

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 detailled information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.

Mirror's Edge Catalyst

Mirror's Edge Catalyst

2016
low 1280x720
159.9  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
111.8  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
55.7  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
50  fps    + Compare
3840x2160
17.1  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Overwatch

Overwatch

2016
low 1280x720
266.7  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
206.6  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
115.7  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
66.9  fps    + Compare
3840x2160
38.6  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Doom

Doom

2016
low 1280x720
142.8  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
126.8  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
74  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
68  fps    + Compare
3840x2160
21.6  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Need for Speed 2016

Need for Speed 2016

2016
low 1280x720
118.2  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
104.6  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
68.8  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
51.6  fps    + Compare
3840x2160
21.4