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GeForce GTX 970

GPU • NVIDIA • MAXWELL 2.0

GeForce GTX 970

Q: When was the GeForce GTX 970 released?

The GeForce GTX 970 was officially released in September 19, 2014. It was launched as a graphics solution by NVIDIA.

Q: What is the 3DMark Time Spy score of GeForce GTX 970?

The GeForce GTX 970 scores 3,666 on 3DMark Time Spy, indicating its solid capabilities in modern gaming scenarios. This benchmark is the industry standard for measuring DirectX 12 gaming performance.

Q: How much VRAM does the GeForce GTX 970 have?

The GeForce GTX 970 is equipped with 4 GB of VRAM, providing adequate memory for 1080p gaming and standard workloads.

Q: What is the TGP (power consumption) of GeForce GTX 970?

The GeForce GTX 970 has a Total Graphics Power (TGP) of 148 W. This value dictates your power supply (PSU) requirements, so ensure your system can handle this draw effectively.

Q: What is the base clock speed of the GeForce GTX 970?

The GeForce GTX 970 operates at a base clock speed of 1050 MHz. This is the minimum clock frequency the graphics card runs at under standard workloads before boosting.

Q: What is the boost clock speed of the GeForce GTX 970?

The GeForce GTX 970 features a boost clock speed of 1178 MHz. This clock speed represents the maximum frequency the graphics card can dynamically reach during intense gaming or rendering workloads.

Q: What architecture is the GeForce GTX 970 based on?

The GeForce GTX 970 is built on the Maxwell 2.0 architecture. This foundational design determines the GPU's power efficiency and support for modern features like hardware Ray Tracing and AI upscaling (DLSS/FSR).

Q: How does the GeForce GTX 970 rank in gaming performance?

With a performance score of 56%, the GeForce GTX 970 is ranked as a capable mid-range graphics card in our extensive GPU database.

Q: What bus interface does the GeForce GTX 970 use?

The GeForce GTX 970 uses the PCIe 3.0 x16 interface, ensuring high-speed data transfer and minimal bottlenecking between the graphics card and the motherboard.

Q: How many shading units does the GeForce GTX 970 have?

The GeForce GTX 970 features 1,664 shading units (cores), which are directly responsible for rendering complex visual effects and lighting in modern games.

GM204 Released: September 19, 2014

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GeForce GTX 970

GM204 Released: September 19, 2014

Memory

GB GDDR5

Boost Clock

1178

MHz

TGP

148

Technical Highlights

Architecture : Maxwell 2.0

Generation : GeForce 900

Shading Units : 1664

RT Cores : -

About GeForce GTX 970

GeForce GTX 970 is a discrete graphics card from NVIDIA released on September 19, 2014 based on the Maxwell 2.0 architecture with 4 GB GDDR5 memory on a PCIe 3.0 x16 bus interface. It runs at 1050 MHz base clock, reaches up to 1178 MHz boost clock, and has a 148 W power rating. It supports DirectX 12 (12_1), Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6.

Last updated: March 29, 2026

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Overall Scores General Info Graphics Processor Raw Performance Memory Board Design APIs Benchmarks Performance Charts FAQ

Overall Score Of GeForce GTX 970

This summarizes how GeForce GTX 970 scores across key areas like gaming, rendering, AI, and Energy Efficiency.

Overall

Gaming Performance

AI & Machine Learning

Hardware Architecture

Workstation

Energy Efficiency

General Info of GeForce GTX 970

Vendor

NVIDIA

Release Date

September 19, 2014

Foundry

TSMC

Architecture

Maxwell 2.0

Process Size

28 nm

14% of the current best Process Size score

Transistors

5.2 billion

Launch Price

329

Graphics Processor of GeForce GTX 970

Base Clock

1050 MHz

39% of the current best Base Clock score

Boost Clock

1178 MHz

38% of the current best Boost Clock score

Shading Units

1664

8% of the current best Shading Units score

Compute Units

8% of the current best Compute Units score

Textured Mapping Units (TMUs)

104

15% of the current best Textured Mapping Units (TMUs) score

Render Output Units (ROPs)

22% of the current best Render Output Units (ROPs) score

Die Size

398 mm²

Density

13.1 MTr/mm²

L1 Cache

48 KB (per SMM)

19% of the current best L1 Cache score

L2 Cache

2 MB

2% of the current best L2 Cache score

Raw Performance of GeForce GTX 970

Pixel Fill Rate

65.97 GPixel/s

14% of the current best Pixel Fill Rate score

Texture Fill Rate

122.5 GTexel/s

7% of the current best Texture Fill Rate score

FP32 Performance

3.920 TFLOPs

4% of the current best FP32 Performance score

Memory of GeForce GTX 970

Memory Size

4 GB

13% of the current best Memory Size score

Memory Type

GDDR5

40% of the current best Memory Type score

Bus Width

256-bit

Memory Clock

Good

1753 MHz

67% of the current best Memory Clock score

Effective Speed

7000 Mbps

23% of the current best Effective Speed score

Bandwidth

224.4 GB/s

13% of the current best Bandwidth score

Board Design of GeForce GTX 970

Bus Interface

Good

PCIe 3.0 x16

60% of the current best Bus Interface score

PCIe Version

Good

3.0

60% of the current best PCIe Version score

PCIe Lanes

TGP

148 W

Length

267 mm

Width

40 mm

Height

111 mm

APIs of GeForce GTX 970

DirectX

Excellent

12 (12_1)

80% of the current best DirectX score

OpenGL

Top tier

4.6

100% of the current best OpenGL score

OpenCL

Top tier

3.0

100% of the current best OpenCL score

Vulkan

Top tier

1.4

100% of the current best Vulkan score

HDMI

Good

2.0

60% of the current best HDMI score

DisplayPort

1.2

40% of the current best DisplayPort score

CUDA

5.2

Ray Tracing

DLSS

Benchmarks of GeForce GTX 970

3D Mark

A standardized suite that approximates real-world gaming workloads to compare graphics performance.

Steel Nomad Lite:

3578

7% of max score 7% of best score for Steel Nomad Lite

Time Spy:

3666

8% of max score 8% of best score for Time Spy

Port Royal:

4353

11% of max score 11% of best score for Port Royal

Fire Strike:

12102

14% of max score 14% of best score for Fire Strike

Wild Life Extreme:

6979

6% of max score 6% of best score for Wild Life Extreme

Night Raid:

47587

23% of max score 23% of best score for Night Raid

GeekBench 6 OpenCL

GPU compute benchmark focused on workloads like image processing and parallel compute tasks.

Compute Score:

28989

7% of max score 7% of best score for Compute Score

Background Blur:

77.1 img/sec

18% of max score 18% of best score for Background Blur

Face Detection:

38.1 img/sec

13% of max score 13% of best score for Face Detection

Horizon Detection:

1.28 Gpixels/sec

6% of max score 6% of best score for Horizon Detection

Edge Detection:

2.08 Gpixels/sec

6% of max score 6% of best score for Edge Detection

Gaussian Blur:

1.85 Gpixels/sec

5% of max score 5% of best score for Gaussian Blur

Feature Matching:

0.17 Gpixels/sec

7% of max score 7% of best score for Feature Matching

Stereo Matching:

92.9 Gpixels/sec

3% of max score 3% of best score for Stereo Matching

Particle Physics:

2443 FPS

4% of max score 4% of best score for Particle Physics

Passmark Graphics

A multi-test benchmark that evaluates raster, memory bandwidth, and compute performance.

G3D Mark Score:

9638 (98th)

25% of max score 25% of best score for G3D Mark Score

G2D Mark Score:

763

54% of max score 54% of best score for G2D Mark Score

DirectX 12:

23% of max score 23% of best score for DirectX 12

GPU Compute:

4079 Ops/s

16% of max score 16% of best score for GPU Compute

Blender

Rendering performance benchmark using Blender Cycles throughput as a practical content-creation metric.

Render Score:

291

2% of max score 2% of best score for Render Score

GeekBench 6 ML

AI benchmark measuring common ML workloads like classification, detection, and super resolution.

ML Single Precision:

6791 (97th)

13% of max score 13% of best score for ML Single Precision

ML Half Precision:

6738

8% of max score 8% of best score for ML Half Precision

ML Quantized:

5128

13% of max score 13% of best score for ML Quantized

Image Classification:

1852

10% of max score 10% of best score for Image Classification

Object Detection:

2425

9% of max score 9% of best score for Object Detection

Image Segmentation:

3622

7% of max score 7% of best score for Image Segmentation

Face Detection:

7074

6% of max score 6% of best score for Face Detection

Image Super Resolution:

8987

16% of max score 16% of best score for Image Super Resolution

Style Transfer:

86714

13% of max score 13% of best score for Style Transfer

Text Classification:

1446

28% of max score 28% of best score for Text Classification

Machine Translation:

1576

18% of max score 18% of best score for Machine Translation

Depth Estimation:

12902

15% of max score 15% of best score for Depth Estimation

Pose Estimation:

43726

13% of max score 13% of best score for Pose Estimation

FurMark

Stress test designed to push sustained load for thermal stability and cooling behavior.

1080p Vulkan:

3134

9% of max score 9% of best score for 1080p Vulkan

1440p Vulkan:

2048

8% of max score 8% of best score for 1440p Vulkan

2160p Vulkan:

938

6% of max score 6% of best score for 2160p Vulkan

1080p OpenGL:

3335

11% of max score 11% of best score for 1080p OpenGL

1440p OpenGL:

2248

10% of max score 10% of best score for 1440p OpenGL

2160p OpenGL:

1071

7% of max score 7% of best score for 2160p OpenGL

Performance Charts Of GeForce GTX 970

These charts give a quick view of FPS scaling across resolutions and how this GPU compares against market top benchmark values.

Gaming FPS Analysis

Ultra settings performance of GeForce GTX 970

1080p Ultra

1440p Ultra

4K Ultra

Performance Benchmarks

Grey is the market top value. Colored bar is GeForce GTX 970.

Market Top

GeForce GTX 970

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Frequently Asked Questions about GeForce GTX 970

The GeForce GTX 970 was officially released in September 19, 2014. It was launched as a graphics solution by NVIDIA.

The GeForce GTX 970 scores 3,666 on 3DMark Time Spy, indicating its solid capabilities in modern gaming scenarios. This benchmark is the industry standard for measuring DirectX 12 gaming performance.

The GeForce GTX 970 is equipped with 4 GB of VRAM, providing adequate memory for 1080p gaming and standard workloads.

The GeForce GTX 970 has a Total Graphics Power (TGP) of 148 W. This value dictates your power supply (PSU) requirements, so ensure your system can handle this draw effectively.

The GeForce GTX 970 operates at a base clock speed of 1050 MHz. This is the minimum clock frequency the graphics card runs at under standard workloads before boosting.

The GeForce GTX 970 features a boost clock speed of 1178 MHz. This clock speed represents the maximum frequency the graphics card can dynamically reach during intense gaming or rendering workloads.

The GeForce GTX 970 is built on the Maxwell 2.0 architecture. This foundational design determines the GPU's power efficiency and support for modern features like hardware Ray Tracing and AI upscaling (DLSS/FSR).

With a performance score of 56%, the GeForce GTX 970 is ranked as a capable mid-range graphics card in our extensive GPU database.

The GeForce GTX 970 uses the PCIe 3.0 x16 interface, ensuring high-speed data transfer and minimal bottlenecking between the graphics card and the motherboard.

The GeForce GTX 970 features 1,664 shading units (cores), which are directly responsible for rendering complex visual effects and lighting in modern games.

The GeForce GTX 970 contains approximately 5.2 billion transistors, packed into its silicon to deliver massive parallel processing capabilities.

The GeForce GTX 970 is manufactured on a 28 nm node. A smaller process node generally translates to better energy efficiency and improved thermal management.