NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M
► remove from comparisonThe NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M is a 28 nm DirectX-11 graphics card for mid- and high-end notebooks. It was introduced in January 2015 and is based on the Maxwell GM204 (later GM206) architecture. The clock rates specified by Nvidia are 924 MHz (+ Boost) for the GPU and 1250 MHz (5000 MHz effective) for the up to 4 GB of GDDR5 memory.
Early 2015 a new version of the 965M (codename N16E-GR, formerly known as 965M Ti) based on the GM206 will be available that features higher core clocks of 935 MHz base and 1151 MHz Turbo. This resulted in a 12% faster performance in games (in our tests with a MSI GE72 pre-sample in maximum detail settings). The TDP however should remain at 50 Watt like the GTX 960M and the chip is also pin compatible. In theory the GM206 also supports HDMI 2.0, but the laptop has to implement the wiring for this correctly.
Architecture
Just like the mid-range GM107 chip (GeForce GTX 860M), the GM204 is also based on Nvidia's new 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 965M, Nvidia have deactivated 8 of 16 SMMs. As a result, only 1024 shader ALUs and 64 TMUs are active. In addition, there are 32 ROPs in two clusters with 16 units each.
The memory interface has a bandwidth of 128-bits (2x 64 bit). 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.
Although the GM107 and the GM204 both belong to the Maxwell generation, 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
Thanks to the increased efficiency, the GeForce GTX 965M performs similar to the previous Kepler-GPU GeForce GTX 870M (1344 shader, 192-bit GDDR5). The more expensive, also Maxwell-based GTX 970M (1280 shader, 192-bit GDDR5) is a further 35 to 40 percent faster. Overall, the GTX 965M is fast enough to run demanding games as of 2014/2015 with high details and FullHD resolution. In some titles, even additional quality features like anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering are possible.
Features
Most of the features are identical to the GeForce GTX 800M series. With the GTX 965M, 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 at 60 Hz 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 the 28 nm GeForce GTX 965M including its MXM board and memory should be significantly below the GTX 870M at an estimated 70 watts. Nevertheless, the graphics card can only be used in large gaming notebooks with powerful cooling systems.
Under low load, dynamic clock rates help the GTX 965M to save energy. While idle, the Optimus technology also allows for the complete deactivation of the GPU in favor of the integrated processor graphics card.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M
► remove from comparisonThe NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M is an (upper) mid-range, DirectX 11-compatible graphics card for laptops unveiled in March 2015. It is based on Nvidia's Maxwell architecture (GM107 chip) and manufactured in 28 nm. The GTX 950M offers 640 shader units clocked at 914 MHz (+ Boost) as well as fast GDDR5 memory (128 bit, 5000 MHz effective, 80 GB/s). Compared to the previous and technically very similar GTX 850M, the GTX 950M is clocked slightly higher. A detailed performance comparison of the GTX 950M with GDDR5 and DDR3 can be found here.
Some GTX 950M may be equipped with cheaper 900 - 1000 MHz DDR3 memory (1800 - 2000 MHz effective, 28.8 - 32 GB/s), which leads to a 10 - 20 percent lower performance despite the slightly higher core clock of 993 MHz.
Architecture
Compared to Kepler, Maxwell has been optimized in several details to increase power efficiency. Smaller Streaming Multiprocessors (SMM) with only 128 ALUs (Kepler: 192) and an optimized scheduler should lead to better utilization of the shaders. Nvidia promises that a Maxwell SMM with 128 ALUs can offer 90 percent of the performance of a Kepler SMX with 192 ALUs. GM107 features 5 SMMs and thus 640 shader cores, 40 TMUs and 16 ROPs (128-bit interface).
Another optimization is the massively enlarged L2 cache (GM107: 2 MB). The increased size can handle some of the memory traffic to allow for a relatively narrow memory interface without significantly reducing the performance.
GM107 supports DirectX 12 with feature level 11_0 only.
Performance
Although the GTX 950M has the same memory bandwidth as the previous GTX 850M, its higher core clock leads to a slightly better performance. Overall, the 950M (GDDR5 version) is about 15 percent slower than the GTX 960M and just slightly behind the old GTX 860M.
Many games of 2014/2015 can be played fluently in FullHD resolution and high detail settings. However, very demanding games such as Assassin's Creed Unity will require lower resolutions and/or details.
Features
GM107 integrates the sixth generation of the PureVideo HD video engine (VP6), offering a better decoding performance for H.264 and MPEG-2 videos. Of course, VP6 supports all features of previous generations (4K support, PIP, video encoding via NVENC API). Unfortunately, HDMI 2.0 is still not supported.
Power Consumption
The power consumption of the GeForce GTX 950M should be similar to (or slightly above) the previous GTX 850M at about 50 watts. Therefore, the GPU is best suited for 15-inch laptops or larger. The 900M series also supports Optimus to automatically switch between an integrated graphics card and the Nvidia GPU.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
GeForce GTX 900M Series |
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Codename | N16E-GS, N16E-GR | N16P-GT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Architecture | Maxwell | Maxwell | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pipelines | 1024 - unified | 640 - unified | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Core Speed | 924 / 935 - 950 / 1151 (Boost) MHz | 914 - 993 - 1124 (Boost) MHz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Speed | 5000 MHz | 1800 - 5000 MHz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Bus Width | 128 Bit | 128 Bit | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Type | GDDR5 | DDR3, GDDR5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Max. Amount of Memory | 4 GB | 4 GB | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Shared Memory | no | no | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
API | DirectX 12_1, Shader 5.0, OpenGL 4.5 | DirectX 12 (FL 11_0), Shader 5.0, OpenGL 4.5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Power Consumption | 50 Watt | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Transistors | 5.2 Billion | 1.9 Billion | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
technology | 28 nm | 28 nm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Features | Battery Boost, GameStream, ShadowPlay, GPU Boost 2.0, Optimus, PhysX, CUDA, SLI, GeForce Experience, DSR, Ansel, G-SYNC | Battery Boost, GameStream, ShadowPlay, GPU Boost 2.0, Optimus, PhysX, CUDA, SLI, GeForce Experience, GameWorks, Adaptive VSync, DSR, Ansel | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Notebook Size | large | medium sized | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Date of Announcement | 05.01.2015 | 12.03.2015 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Link to Manufacturer Page | www.geforce.com | www.geforce.com |
Benchmarks
3DM Vant. Perf. total + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M
specvp11 snx-01 + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M
specvp12 sw-03 + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M
Cinebench R15 OpenGL 64 Bit + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M
GFXBench T-Rex HD Offscreen C24Z16 + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card
* 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 2020
2020Gears Tactics
2020Need for Speed Heat
2019FIFA 20
2019Borderlands 3
2019Control
2019F1 2019
2019League of Legends
2019Rage 2
2019Anno 1800
2019The Division 2
2019Dirt Rally 2.0
2019Anthem
2019Far Cry New Dawn
2019Metro Exodus
2019Just Cause 4
2018Darksiders III
2018Battlefield V
2018Farming Simulator 19
2018Fallout 76
2018Hitman 2
2018Forza Horizon 4
2018FIFA 19
2018F1 2018
2018Monster Hunter World
2018The Crew 2
2018Far Cry 5
2018Fortnite
2018Call of Duty WWII
2017Destiny 2
2017ELEX
2017The Evil Within 2
2017FIFA 18
2017Ark Survival Evolved
2017F1 2017
2017Team Fortress 2
2017Dirt 4
2017Rocket League
2017For Honor
2017Resident Evil 7
2017Watch Dogs 2
2016Dishonored 2
2016Titanfall 2
2016Farming Simulator 17
2016Battlefield 1
2016Civilization VI
2016Mafia 3
2016FIFA 17
2016No Man's Sky
2016Overwatch
2016Doom
2016Need for Speed 2016
2016Hitman 2016
2016The Division
2016Far Cry Primal
2016XCOM 2
2016Rainbow Six Siege
2015Just Cause 3
2015Fallout 4
2015Anno 2205
2015FIFA 16
2015World of Warships
2015Metal Gear Solid V
2015Mad Max
2015Dota 2 Reborn
2015The Witcher 3
2015Dirt Rally
2015GTA V
2015Battlefield Hardline
2015Evolve
2015The Crew
2014Far Cry 4
2014F1 2014
2014The Evil Within
2014Ryse: Son of Rome
2014Alien: Isolation
2014Sims 4
2014Risen 3: Titan Lords
2014GRID: Autosport
2014Watch Dogs
2014Thief
2014X-Plane 10.25
2013Call of Duty: Ghosts
2013Battlefield 4
2013Total War: Rome II
2013Saints Row IV
2013Company of Heroes 2
2013Metro: Last Light
2013BioShock Infinite
2013SimCity
2013Tomb Raider
2013Crysis 3
2013Hitman: Absolution
2012Dishonored
2012Guild Wars 2
2012Sleeping Dogs
2012Dirt Showdown
2012Diablo III
2012Mass Effect 3
2012Alan Wake
2012Anno 2070
2011Battlefield 3
2011Dirt 3
2011Mafia 2
2010Average Gaming NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M → 100%
Average Gaming 30-70 fps → 100%
Average Gaming NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M → 67%
Average Gaming 30-70 fps → 68%