NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950
VS
AMD Radeon HD 7970
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950
VS
AMD Radeon HD 7970

General info

The general info section in the graphics cards comparison list contains information about the date of release, type, overall rating and other useful data for identifying winner between NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950  vs  AMD Radeon HD 7970.

242
Place in performance rating
246
13.60
Value for money (0-100)
14.46
Maxwell
Architecture
GCN
GM206
Code name
Tahiti
Desktop
Type
Desktop
20 August 2015 (6 years ago)
Release date
22 December 2011 (9 years ago)
$159
Launch price (MSRP)
$549
$181 (1.1x MSRP)
Price now
$429 (0.8x MSRP)
no data
Design
reference
24.57
Value for money
5.80
GM206
GPU code name
Tahiti XT
Desktop
Market segment
Desktop

Technical specs

Which GPU is better between NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950  vs  AMD Radeon HD 7970 in the fabrication process, power consumption, and also base and turbo frequency of the GPU is the most important part containing in the graphics cards hierarchy.

768
Pipelines
2048
1024 MHz
Core clock speed
no data
1188 MHz
Boost Clock
925 MHz
2,940 million
Transistor count
4,313 million
28 nm
Manufacturing process technology
28 nm
90 Watt
Power consumption (TDP)
300 Watt
49.2 billion/sec
Texture fill rate
118.4
1,825 gflops
Floating-point performance
3,789 gflops
768
CUDA cores
no data
768
Pipelines / CUDA cores
2048
1188 MHz
Boost clock speed
925 MHz
2,940 million
Number of transistors
4,313 million
90 Watt
Thermal design power (TDP)
300 Watt

Compatibility, dimensions and requirements

Let’s discuss how graphics cards NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 and AMD Radeon HD 7970 come in different sizes (length), connector types and types of interfaces.

PCIe 3.0 x16
Interface
PCIe 3.0 x16
7.938" (20.2 cm)
Length
274 mm
1x 6-pins
Supplementary power connectors
1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin
+
SLI options
no data
350 Watt
Recommended system power (PSU)
no data
PCI Express 3.0
Bus support
PCIe 2.1 x16
4.376" (11.1 cm)
Height
no data

Memory

Graphics cards memory plays important role both in gaming and in applications for graphics. The card will perform much quicker and better, if it has more memory capacity and right memory type. What is the difference between NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 vs AMD Radeon HD 7970.

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

Video outputs and ports

Let’s find out the difference in extra ports between two graphics cards. What's the difference between NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 vs AMD Radeon HD 7970.

Dual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2
Display Connectors
1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
+
G-SYNC support
no data
4 displays
Multi monitor support
no data
+
HDCP
no data
2048x1536
Maximum VGA resolution
no data
Internal
Audio input for HDMI
no data
no data
Eyefinity
+
+
HDMI
+
no data
DisplayPort support
-

Technologies

Let’s have a look what is the difference. It is worthwhile to note that NVIDIA and AMD are using different technologies.

+
3D Vision
no data
2.0
GPU Boost
no data
+
CUDA
no data
+
GeForce Experience
no data
+
Surround
no data
+
Adaptive Vertical Sync
no data
+
GameStream
no data
+
GeForce ShadowPlay
no data
+
GameWorks
no data
no data
AppAcceleration
-
no data
CrossFire
1
no data
FreeSync
1
no data
HD3D
-
no data
PowerTune
-
no data
TrueAudio
-
no data
ZeroCore
-
no data
Enduro
-

API support

The confrontation between the two contenders NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 and AMD Radeon HD 7970 is practically over. The hardware support (API) does not greatly affect the overall performance, it is not considered in synthetic benchmarks and other performance tests. 

12 (12_1)
DirectX
DirectX® 11
4.5
OpenGL
4.6
1.1.126
Vulkan
no data
6.4
Shader Model
5.1
1.2
OpenCL
1.2
no data
Mantle
-

Gaming performance

Select form the list the required name to identify gaming performance for NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 and AMD Radeon HD 7970 graphics cards. The result shows how fast the game will run and whether it can be run on this computer. The different monitor resolutions – from low to 4K – are used for testing. Find out is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 or AMD Radeon HD 7970 good for gaming.


low
1280x720
med.
1920x1080
high
1920x1080
ultra
1920x1080
QHD
2560x1440
4K
3840x2160
Horizon Zero Dawn (2020) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950
AMD Radeon HD 7970
Death Stranding (2020) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950
AMD Radeon HD 7970
F1 2020 (2020) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950
AMD Radeon HD 7970
Gears Tactics (2020) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950
AMD Radeon HD 7970
Doom Eternal (2020) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950
AMD Radeon HD 7970
Legend
5 Stutters – This game is very likely to stutter and have poor frame rates. Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, average frame rates are expected to fall below 25fps
May Stutter – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game. Based on interpolated information from surrounding graphics cards of similar performance levels, stutters and poor frame rates are expected.
30 Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 25fps
40 Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 35fps
60 Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 58fps
May Run Fluently – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game. Based on interpolated information from surrounding graphics cards of similar performance levels, fluent frame rates are expected.
? Uncertain – This graphics card experienced unexpected performance issues during testing for this game. A slower card may be able to achieve better and more consistent frame rates than this particular GPU running the same benchmark scene.
Uncertain – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game and no reliable interpolation can be made based on the performances of surrounding cards of the same class or family.
The value in the fields displays the average frame rate of all values in the database. Move your cursor over the value to see individual results.

Advantages of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950

0.3% faster in synthetic tests

Cheaper ($181 (1.1x MSRP) vs $429 (0.8x MSRP))

Less power consumption (90 Watt vs 300 Watt)

G-SYNC support

Advantages of AMD Radeon HD 7970

More pipelines (2048 vs 768)

More maximum RAM amount (3 GB vs 2 GB)

More memory bandwidth (264 GB/s vs 105.6 GB/s)

So, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 or AMD Radeon HD 7970?

Judging by the results of synthetic and gaming tests, we recommend NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 .

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 versus AMD Radeon HD 7970 performance benchmarks comparison

Overall benchmark performance

Unigine Heaven 4.0

Benchmark Unigine Heaven 4.0: Graphic cards performance test result. Check Unigine Heaven 4.0 test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

Benchmark 3DMark Cloud Gate GPU: Graphic cards performance test result. Check 3DMark Cloud Gate GPU test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

3DMark Fire Strike Score

Benchmark 3DMark Fire Strike Score: Graphic cards performance test result. Check 3DMark Fire Strike Score test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Benchmark 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics: Graphic cards performance test result. Check 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

Benchmark 3DMark 11 Performance GPU: Graphic cards performance test result. Check 3DMark 11 Performance GPU test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

3DMark Vantage Performance

Benchmark 3DMark Vantage Performance: Graphic cards performance test result. Check 3DMark Vantage Performance test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

Unigine Heaven 3.0

Benchmark Unigine Heaven 3.0: Graphic cards performance test result. Check Unigine Heaven 3.0 test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

Octane Render OctaneBench

Benchmark Octane Render OctaneBench: Graphic cards performance test result. Check Octane Render OctaneBench test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

Passmark

Benchmark Passmark: Graphic cards performance test result. Check Passmark test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

User rating

4.3 Out of 154 Hitesti Score
4.2 Out of 31 Hitesti Score