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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M SLI

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M SLI

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M SLI is a high-end DirectX 11-compatible graphics solution for laptops, consisting of two GeForce GTX 970M. Each card has a 28 nm GM204 GPU based on the Maxwell architecture, which is the same chip as found on the GTX 980M as well as several desktop cards. The clocks for the SLI-setup are usually identical to a single GTX 970M (924 MHz GPU, 1250 MHz memory).

With SLI, each card renders a single frame (AFR mode). Therefore, it may suffer from micro stuttering in low fps ranges of 30 fps. This happens because of different timespans between two frames (e.g., irregular delays between sequential frames).

Architecture

GM204 is based on Nvidia's Maxwell architecture, which replaces the previous Kepler generation. Among other changes, Nvidia have restructured the streaming multi processors (SMM) in order to increase workload and efficiency. Now each SMM contains only 128 shader units and 8 TMUs, which is noticeably less than an equivalent Kepler GPU. The GM204 features four GPCs, and each consists of four SMMs. But, in the GeForce GTX 970M, Nvidia have deactivated 6 of 16 SMMs. As a result, only 1280 shader ALUs and 80 TMUs are active. In addition, there are 48 ROPs in three clusters with 16 units each.

The memory interface has a bandwidth of 192-bits (3x 64 bit) for each of the two GPUs. Thanks to an improved compression algorithm, the connection to the GDDR5 memory should be significantly more efficient per MHz. Furthermore, the L1 (96 KB per SMM) and L2 caches (2 MB) have been significantly increased to lower the needed bandwidth. Compared to the mid-range GM107, the newer and larger GM204 has several additional features and changes. Aside from the improved polymorphic engine in the SSMs, it is also the first Nvidia chip to support DirectX 12 Feature Level 12_1.

Performance

With good driver support, SLI almost doubles the performance of a single card. The GTX 970M SLI outperforms the former GeForce GTX 880M SLI by about 10 percent and is the second fastest mobile graphics solution in late 2014. Only the significantly more expensive GTX 980M SLI offers even more 3D power and is about 30 percent faster. Nevertheless, the GTX 970M SLI is powerful enough to run even the most demanding games with highest details, AA/AF and resolutions exceeding FullHD.

Features

Most of the features are identical to the GeForce GTX 800M series. With the GTX 970M, there can be up to 4 active displays possible, but this will likely decrease due to Optimus. Displays can be connected with a maximum resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels via DisplayPort 1.2 or HDMI 2.0 (no HDCP @ 4K). HD audio formats like Dolby True HD and DTS HD can be sent to a compatible receiver as bitstream. As with previous models, 3D Vision is not supported with Optimus.

The updated video processor VP6 supports the usual formats like H.264 and can also decode and encode H.265 with a resolution of up to 4K via the NVENC API. Several parallel streams, such as picture-in-picture in a Blu-Ray movie, are also possible.

Further features of the GTX 900M series, which are also partly supported by older cards, include Battery Boost (longer battery life during gaming), Shadowplay (recording of gaming videos up to 4K60p and 130 Mbit/s) and Gamestream (game streaming on Shield console). More information on these features are available here.

Power Consumption

The power consumption of each GeForce GTX 970M including its MXM board and memory should be similar to a GTX 870M with a specified TDP of 100 W, leading to a total TDP of about 200 W. Given the significantly higher performance, this can be considered a massive increase in performance-per-watt. Nevertheless, the SLI setup can only be used in very large and heavy gaming notebooks with powerful cooling systems. Under low load, dynamic clock rates help the GPUs to save energy.

ManufacturerNVIDIA
GeForce GTX 900M Series
GeForce GTX 980M SLI compare 3072 @ 1.04 - 1.13 GHz2x 256 Bit @ 5000 MHz
GeForce GTX 970M SLI 2560 @ 0.92 - 1.04 GHz2x 192 Bit @ 5000 MHz
GeForce GTX 965M SLI compare 2048 @ 0.92 - 0.95 GHz128 Bit @ 5000 MHz
GeForce GTX 980M compare 1536 @ 1.04 - 1.13 GHz256 Bit @ 5000 MHz
GeForce GTX 970M compare 1280 @ 0.92 - 1.04 GHz192 Bit @ 5000 MHz
GeForce GTX 965M compare 1024 @ 0.92 - 0.95 GHz128 Bit @ 5000 MHz
GeForce GTX 960M compare 640 @ 1.1 - 1.2 GHz128 Bit @ 5000 MHz
GeForce GTX 950M compare 640 @ 0.91 - 1.12 GHz128 Bit @ 1800 - 5000 MHz
ArchitectureMaxwell
Pipelines2560 - unified
Core Speed924 - 1038 (Boost) MHz
Memory Speed5000 MHz
Memory Bus Width2x 192 Bit
Memory TypeGDDR5
Max. Amount of Memory2x 6144 MB
Shared Memoryno
DirectXDirectX 12_1, Shader 5.0
Transistor Count2x 5200 Million
technology28 nm
FeaturesBattery Boost, GameStream, ShadowPlay, GPU Boost 2.0, Optimus, PhysX, CUDA, SLI, GeForce Experience
Notebook Sizelarge
Date of Announcement07.10.2014

Benchmarks

Performance Rating - 3DMark 11 + Fire Strike + Time Spy
43.1 pt (45%)
AMD Radeon HD 8180 -97%
...
AMD Radeon R9 290X -10%
AMD Radeon RX Vega M GH -10%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M SLI -9%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 880M SLI -6%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop) -5%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 -5%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 (Desktop) -3%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 -2%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti -1%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M SLI
AMD Radeon R9 390X 1%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile 2%
AMD Radeon RX 570 (Desktop) 4%
AMD Radeon RX 580 (Desktop) 5%
AMD Radeon RX 480 (Desktop) 6%
AMD Radeon R9 Fury 6%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Max-Q 8%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti (Desktop) 11%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super (Desktop) 12%
...
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT (Desktop) 124%
0%
100%
3DMark - 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited Graphics
256573 Points (41%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme Graphics
256080 Points (35%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - 3DMark Cloud Gate Score
min: 23191     avg: 25745     median: 25556.5 (34%)     max: 28674 Points
+ 4 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - 3DMark Cloud Gate Graphics
min: 88044     avg: 96257     median: 96943.5 (48%)     max: 103095 Points
+ 4 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - 3DMark Fire Strike Standard Score
min: 10621     avg: 10865     median: 10741 (28%)     max: 11358 Points
+ 4 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - 3DMark Fire Strike Standard Graphics
min: 14231     avg: 14776     median: 14759.5 (30%)     max: 15354 Points
+ 4 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - 3DMark Ice Storm Graphics
min: 157047     avg: 276540     median: 303556 (40%)     max: 342001 Points
+ 4 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 11 - 3DM11 Performance Score
min: 14203     avg: 14633     median: 14514.5 (37%)     max: 15300 Points
+ 4 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 11 - 3DM11 Performance GPU
min: 18249     avg: 19109     median: 18870 (32%)     max: 20447 Points
+ 4 benchmarks and specifications   - Hide comparison chart
3DMark Vantage
3DM Vant. Perf. total +
3DM Vant. Perf. GPU no PhysX +
3DMark 06 3DMark 06 - Standard 1280x1024 +
Unigine Heaven 3.0 - Unigine Heaven 3.0 DX 11
169 fps (56%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
SPECviewperf 12
specvp12 sw-03 +
specvp12 snx-02 +
specvp12 showcase-01 +
specvp12 mediacal-01 +
specvp12 maya-04 +
specvp12 energy-01 +
specvp12 creo-01 +
specvp12 catia-04 +
Cinebench R10 Cinebench R10 Shading (32bit) +
Cinebench R11.5 Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64 Bit +
Cinebench R15
Cinebench R15 OpenGL 64 Bit +
Cinebench R15 OpenGL Ref. Match 64 Bit +
GFXBench 3.0 - GFXBench 3.0 Manhattan Offscreen
259 fps (28%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
GFXBench 3.0 - GFXBench 3.0 Manhattan
74.8 fps (20%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
LuxMark v2.0 64Bit - LuxMark v2.0 Room GPU
min: 2163     avg: 2187     median: 2187 (22%)     max: 2211 Samples/s
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
LuxMark v2.0 64Bit - LuxMark v2.0 Sala GPU
min: 3744     avg: 3819     median: 3818.5 (14%)     max: 3893 Samples/s
+ 2 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
ComputeMark v2.1 - ComputeMark v2.1 Result
min: 5307     avg: 5328     median: 5327.5 (11%)     max: 5348 points
+ 2 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 detailed information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.

Need for Speed 2016

Need for Speed 2016

2016
low 1280x720
107.6  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
102.5  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
90.7  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
68.1  fps    + Compare
4K 3840x2160
37.1  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Additional Benchmarks
Medium / Off 1920x1080
102.1
Hitman 2016

Hitman 2016

2016
low 1280x720
60.7  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
60.3  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
52.2  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
50.2  fps    + Compare
4K 3840x2160
25.1  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Additional Benchmarks
Medium / Off 4xAF 1920x1080
59.6
The Division

The Division

2016
low 1280x720
161.3  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
129.4  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
71.9  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
54.9  fps    + Compare
4K 3840x2160
26.2  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Additional Benchmarks
Medium Preset 4xAF 1920x1080
93.5
Far Cry Primal

Far Cry Primal

2016
low 1280x720
69  fps    + Compare
med. 1920x1080
64  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
63  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
60  fps    + Compare
4K 3840x2160
27  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Additional Benchmarks
Low Preset 1920x1080
66
XCOM 2

XCOM 2

2016
low 1280x720
94.6  fps    + Compare
med. 1920x1080
80.2  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
67.2  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
31.7  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Additional Benchmarks
Low Preset TrilinearAF 1920x1080
93.8
Rise of the Tomb Raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider

2016
low 1024x768
78.7  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
72.4  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
71.4  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
68  fps    + Compare
4K 3840x2160
31.9  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Rainbow Six Siege

Rainbow Six Siege

2015
low 1024x768
234.5  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
185.5  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
110.7  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
94.6  fps    + Compare
4K 3840x2160
33.5  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Just Cause 3

Just Cause 3

2015
low 1024x768
127.6  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
104.5  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
60.1  fps    + Compare
ultra 1920x1080
51.7  fps    + Compare
4K 3840x2160
21.3  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings ultra.
Star Wars Battlefront

Star Wars Battlefront

2015
low 1024x768
199.8  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
196.9  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
127.1  fps    + Compare