NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 vs AMD Radeon HD 7970

Comparative analysis of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 and AMD Radeon HD 7970 videocards for all known characteristics in the following categories: Essentials, Technical info, Video outputs and ports, Compatibility, dimensions and requirements, API support, Memory, Technologies. Benchmark videocards performance analysis: PassMark - G3D Mark, PassMark - G2D Mark, Geekbench - OpenCL, CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Face Detection (mPixels/s), CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Ocean Surface Simulation (Frames/s), CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - T-Rex (Frames/s), CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Video Composition (Frames/s), CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Bitcoin Mining (mHash/s), GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Frames), GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Frames), GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Frames), GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Fps), GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Fps), GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Fps), 3DMark Fire Strike - Graphics Score.

 

Differences

Reasons to consider the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960

  • Videocard is newer: launch date 3 year(s) 1 month(s) later
  • Around 27% higher boost clock speed: 1178 MHz vs 925 MHz
  • 2.5x lower typical power consumption: 120 Watt vs 300 Watt
Specifications (specs)
Launch date 22 January 2015 vs 22 December 2011
Boost clock speed 1178 MHz vs 925 MHz
Thermal Design Power (TDP) 120 Watt vs 300 Watt
Benchmarks
3DMark Fire Strike - Graphics Score 2284 vs 2276

Reasons to consider the AMD Radeon HD 7970

  • Around 64% higher texture fill rate: 118.4 GTexel / s vs 72 billion / sec
  • 2x more pipelines: 2048 vs 1024
  • Around 57% better floating-point performance: 3,789 gflops vs 2,413 gflops
  • Around 50% higher maximum memory size: 3 GB vs 2 GB
  • 196.4x more memory clock speed: 1375 MHz vs 7.0 GB/s
  • Around 85% better performance in Geekbench - OpenCL: 34541 vs 18655
  • Around 14% better performance in CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Face Detection (mPixels/s): 84.413 vs 73.733
  • Around 75% better performance in CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Ocean Surface Simulation (Frames/s): 1390.592 vs 792.44
  • Around 50% better performance in CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - T-Rex (Frames/s): 7.336 vs 4.888
  • 2.9x better performance in CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Video Composition (Frames/s): 101.929 vs 35.338
  • 2.4x better performance in CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Bitcoin Mining (mHash/s): 481.76 vs 200.825
  • Around 31% better performance in GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Frames): 9448 vs 7218
  • Around 31% better performance in GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Fps): 9448 vs 7218
Specifications (specs)
Texture fill rate 118.4 GTexel / s vs 72 billion / sec
Pipelines 2048 vs 1024
Floating-point performance 3,789 gflops vs 2,413 gflops
Maximum memory size 3 GB vs 2 GB
Memory clock speed 1375 MHz vs 7.0 GB/s
Benchmarks
Geekbench - OpenCL 34541 vs 18655
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Face Detection (mPixels/s) 84.413 vs 73.733
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Ocean Surface Simulation (Frames/s) 1390.592 vs 792.44
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - T-Rex (Frames/s) 7.336 vs 4.888
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Video Composition (Frames/s) 101.929 vs 35.338
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Bitcoin Mining (mHash/s) 481.76 vs 200.825
GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Frames) 9448 vs 7218
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Frames) 3704 vs 3691
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Frames) 3350 vs 3335
GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Fps) 9448 vs 7218
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Fps) 3704 vs 3691
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Fps) 3350 vs 3335

Compare benchmarks

GPU 1: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960
GPU 2: AMD Radeon HD 7970

Geekbench - OpenCL
GPU 1
GPU 2
18655
34541
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Face Detection (mPixels/s)
GPU 1
GPU 2
73.733
84.413
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Ocean Surface Simulation (Frames/s)
GPU 1
GPU 2
792.44
1390.592
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - T-Rex (Frames/s)
GPU 1
GPU 2
4.888
7.336
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Video Composition (Frames/s)
GPU 1
GPU 2
35.338
101.929
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Bitcoin Mining (mHash/s)
GPU 1
GPU 2
200.825
481.76
GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Frames)
GPU 1
GPU 2
7218
9448
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Frames)
GPU 1
GPU 2
3691
3704
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Frames)
GPU 1
GPU 2
3335
3350
GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Fps)
GPU 1
GPU 2
7218
9448
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Fps)
GPU 1
GPU 2
3691
3704
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Fps)
GPU 1
GPU 2
3335
3350
3DMark Fire Strike - Graphics Score
GPU 1
GPU 2
2284
2276
Name NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 AMD Radeon HD 7970
PassMark - G3D Mark 6082
PassMark - G2D Mark 673
Geekbench - OpenCL 18655 34541
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Face Detection (mPixels/s) 73.733 84.413
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Ocean Surface Simulation (Frames/s) 792.44 1390.592
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - T-Rex (Frames/s) 4.888 7.336
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Video Composition (Frames/s) 35.338 101.929
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Bitcoin Mining (mHash/s) 200.825 481.76
GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Frames) 7218 9448
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Frames) 3691 3704
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Frames) 3335 3350
GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Fps) 7218 9448
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Fps) 3691 3704
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Fps) 3335 3350
3DMark Fire Strike - Graphics Score 2284 2276

Compare specifications (specs)

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 AMD Radeon HD 7970

Essentials

Architecture Maxwell 2.0 GCN 1.0
Code name GM206 Tahiti
Launch date 22 January 2015 22 December 2011
Launch price (MSRP) $199 $549
Place in performance rating 504 501
Price now $229.99
Type Desktop Desktop
Value for money (0-100) 34.63
Design AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series

Technical info

Boost clock speed 1178 MHz 925 MHz
Core clock speed 1127 MHz
CUDA cores 1024
Floating-point performance 2,413 gflops 3,789 gflops
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 28 nm
Pipelines 1024 2048
Texture fill rate 72 billion / sec 118.4 GTexel / s
Thermal Design Power (TDP) 120 Watt 300 Watt
Transistor count 2,940 million 4,313 million
Stream Processors 2048

Video outputs and ports

Audio input for HDMI Internal
Display Connectors Dual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2, 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
HDCP
Maximum VGA resolution 2048x1536
Multi monitor support
DisplayPort support
Dual-link DVI support
Eyefinity
HDMI
VGA

Compatibility, dimensions and requirements

Bus support PCI Express 3.0 PCIe 2.1 x16
Height 4.376" (11.1 cm)
Interface PCIe 3.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
Length 9.5" (24.1 cm) 274 mm
Recommended system power (PSU) 400 Watt
SLI options 2x
Supplementary power connectors 1x 6-pins 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin

API support

DirectX 12.0 (12_1) 11
OpenGL 4.4 4.5
Vulkan

Memory

Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 3 GB
Memory bandwidth 112 GB / s 264 GB/s
Memory bus width 128 Bit 384 Bit
Memory clock speed 7.0 GB/s 1375 MHz
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Shared memory 0 0

Technologies

CUDA
GameStream
GameWorks
GeForce ShadowPlay
GPU Boost
AMD Eyefinity
CrossFire
FreeSync