NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 vs ATI Radeon X850 XT

Comparative analysis of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 and ATI Radeon X850 XT 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.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960

ATI Radeon X850 XT

Differences

Reasons to consider the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960

Videocard is newer: launch date 10 year(s) 1 month(s) later
2.2x more core clock speed: 1127 MHz vs 520 MHz
8.7x more texture fill rate: 72 billion / sec vs 8.32 GTexel / s
A newer manufacturing process allows for a more powerful, yet cooler running videocard: 28 nm vs 130 nm
8x more maximum memory size: 2 GB vs 256 MB
74.9x better performance in PassMark - G3D Mark: 6066 vs 81
2.1x better performance in PassMark - G2D Mark: 675 vs 326

Specifications (specs)
Launch date	22 January 2015 vs 1 December 2004
Core clock speed	1127 MHz vs 520 MHz
Texture fill rate	72 billion / sec vs 8.32 GTexel / s
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm vs 130 nm
Maximum memory size	2 GB vs 256 MB
Benchmarks
PassMark - G3D Mark	6066 vs 81
PassMark - G2D Mark	675 vs 326

Reasons to consider the ATI Radeon X850 XT

Around 74% lower typical power consumption: 69 Watt vs 120 Watt
154.3x more memory clock speed: 1080 MHz vs 7.0 GB/s

Thermal Design Power (TDP)	69 Watt vs 120 Watt
Memory clock speed	1080 MHz vs 7.0 GB/s

Compare benchmarks

GPU 1: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960
GPU 2: ATI Radeon X850 XT

PassMark - G3D Mark

GPU 1

GPU 2

6066

PassMark - G2D Mark

GPU 1

GPU 2

675

326

Name	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960	ATI Radeon X850 XT
PassMark - G3D Mark	6066	81
PassMark - G2D Mark	675	326
Geekbench - OpenCL	18326
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Face Detection (mPixels/s)	73.733
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Ocean Surface Simulation (Frames/s)	792.44
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - T-Rex (Frames/s)	4.888
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Video Composition (Frames/s)	35.338
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Bitcoin Mining (mHash/s)	200.825
GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Frames)	7218
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Frames)	3691
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Frames)	3335
GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Fps)	7218
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Fps)	3691
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Fps)	3335
3DMark Fire Strike - Graphics Score	2283

Compare specifications (specs)

	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960	ATI Radeon X850 XT
Essentials
Architecture	Maxwell 2.0	R400
Code name	GM206	R480
Launch date	22 January 2015	1 December 2004
Launch price (MSRP)	$199
Place in performance rating	496	494
Price now	$229.99
Type	Desktop	Desktop
Value for money (0-100)	34.63
Technical info
Boost clock speed	1178 MHz
Core clock speed	1127 MHz	520 MHz
CUDA cores	1024
Floating-point performance	2,413 gflops
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	130 nm
Pipelines	1024
Texture fill rate	72 billion / sec	8.32 GTexel / s
Thermal Design Power (TDP)	120 Watt	69 Watt
Transistor count	2,940 million	160 million
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	2x DVI, 1x S-Video
HDCP
Maximum VGA resolution	2048x1536
Multi monitor support
Compatibility, dimensions and requirements
Bus support	PCI Express 3.0
Height	4.376" (11.1 cm)
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 1.0 x16
Length	9.5" (24.1 cm)
Recommended system power (PSU)	400 Watt
SLI options	2x
Supplementary power connectors	1x 6-pins	1x 6-pin
API support
DirectX	12.0 (12_1)	9.0b
OpenGL	4.4	2.0
Vulkan
Memory
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	256 MB
Memory bandwidth	112 GB / s	34.6 GB / s
Memory bus width	128 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	7.0 GB/s	1080 MHz
Memory type	GDDR5	GDDR3
Shared memory	0
Technologies
CUDA
GameStream
GameWorks
GeForce ShadowPlay
GPU Boost