GeForce RTX 5070 vs GTX 960

We compared two discrete desktop gaming GPUs: the GeForce RTX 5070 12 GB with 48 pipelines and 6144 shaders against the 10 years and 2 months older GTX 960 2 GB that utilizes 8 pipelines and 1024 shaders. Here you will find complete details about specs, efficiency, performance tests, and more.

Review

General comparison of performance in games, applications, power efficiency, and other metrics
Gaming
Performance in DirectX, OpenCL, and Vulkan games
Workstation
Perf. in 3D modeling, video editing and rendering apps
AI/ML
Capabilities for machine learning and AI-related tasks
Energy Efficiency
Power consumption efficiency in different scenarios
DeviceFacts Final Score
Overall video card score

Value for money (Beta)

We use average GPU prices from all manufacturers by default. Enter the current price of a specific card for better accuracy.
Currency
12 GB GDDR7
VS
2 GB GDDR5
93.4
(Very good)
Value Index
18.5
(Bad)

Key differences

Key distinctions and advantages of GTX 960 over RTX 5070
Reasons to consider the GeForce RTX 5070
  • Performs significantly better (up to 10.7x) in 3DMark Steel Nomad Lite
  • 12.9x higher maximum theoretical performance (30.9 vs 2.4 TFLOPS)
  • Shows 9.8x higher average frame rate in modern games at QHD resolution – 128 vs 13 FPS
  • Manufactured using a more efficient 4 nm process technology
  • Ray-tracing support with 48 dedicated RT cores

Gaming Performance

Frame rate comparison across popular AAA titles at different resolutions
GPU
vs

Games

FPS Table
Forza Horizon 5
197
140
130
97
29
14
13
-
The Witcher 3
216
183
131
71
24
18
13
-
Counter-Strike 2
293
210
160
81
46
29
19
-
Far Cry 6
164
145
128
82
31
27
16
10
Hogwarts Legacy
140
117
92
51
18
12
10
-
CoD: Modern Warfare III
178
171
136
89
30
24
16
12
Ghost of Tsushima
123
107
89
58
15
-
-
-
Cyberpunk 2077
164
144
99
43
14
11
-
-
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
253
238
189
98
28
26
15
-
Average FPS by Resolution
1080p High 192 26
1080p Ultra 162 19
1440p Ultra 128 13
4K Ultra 74 -
Margin of Error Low Low

Benchmarks

Graphics cards’ performance in recent benchmarking apps

3D Mark

Multiplatform graphics benchmark suite that directly correlates with performance in modern games
Steel Nomad Lite Score
RTX 5070 +966%
23223
2179
Time Spy 22708 2302
Solar Bay 107004 -
Port Royal 14498 -
Fire Strike 58324 7720
Wild Life Extreme 43879 4543
Night Raid 172064 31121
Sources: 3DMark [1], [2]

GeekBench 6 OpenCL

GPU test for computational tasks (image processing, photography, computer vision, and ML)
GB6 Compute Score
RTX 5070 +837%
190967
20370
Background Blur 254.4 img/sec 51.7 img/sec
Face Detection 180.6 img/sec 26.1 img/sec
Horizon Detection 7.91 Gpixels/sec 0.84 Gpixels/sec
Edge Detection 10.2 Gpixels/sec 1.36 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian Blur 10.7 Gpixels/sec 1.26 Gpixels/sec
Feature Matching 1.84 Gpixels/sec 0.14 Gpixels/sec
Stereo Matching 975.7 Gpixels/sec 64.9 Gpixels/sec
Particle Physics 27816.5 FPS 1825 FPS
API OpenCL OpenCL
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]

Passmark Graphics

Videocard test that focuses on compute shaders, multi-texturing, tessellation, and other features
G3D Mark Score
RTX 5070 +366%
28651
6150
G2D Mark 1289 677
DirectX 11 279 FPS 42 FPS
DirectX 12 106 FPS 28 FPS
GPU Compute 14323 Ops/s 2801 Ops/s
Sources: PassMark [5], [6] – 23210 & 26932 samples

Blender

Rendering performance test for 3D modeling
Blender GPU
RTX 5070 +3561%
6109.17
166.86
Sources: Blender [9], [10] – 1904 & 90 samples

Artificial Intelligence Tests

Performance in machine learning and artificial intelligence tasks

GeekBench 6 ML

Tests throughput of AI operations in single, half, and quantized precision
GB6 ML Single Precision
RTX 5070 +699%
30221
3784
GB6 ML Half Precision
RTX 5070 +1285%
53037
3830
GB6 ML Quantized
RTX 5070 +762%
23474
2724
Image Classification (SP) 12270 1492
Image Segmentation (HP) 30237 2183
Image Super Resolution (Q) 35585 3618
Face Detection (HP) 62662 3654
Pose Estimation (Q) 145190 11306
Text Classification (SP) 4198 1315
Machine Translation (HP) 6233 2085
Object Detection (SP) 16709 1927
Depth Estimation (Q) 58300 5491
Style Transfer (SP) 246598 22683
Framework ONNX ONNX
Backend DirectML DirectML
Sources: Geekbench [9], [10]

Specifications

Technical specifications of GeForce RTX 5070 and GTX 960

General

Vendor Nvidia Nvidia
Build Discrete Discrete
Released January 7, 2025 January 22, 2015
Launch price (MSRP) $549 $199
Case Desktop Desktop
Purpose Gaming Gaming
Segment Mid-range Mid-range
Architecture Blackwell 2.0 Maxwell 2.0
GPU Codename GB205-300 GM206
Rival Equivalent - Radeon RX 9070 -
Recommended CPU - Intel Core Ultra 5 245K or above -
Desktop GPU rating (21st and 90th place)

Graphics Processing Unit

Base Clock 2160 MHz 1127 MHz
Boost Clock 2512 MHz 1178 MHz
Shading Units 6144 1024
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) 192 64
Render Output Units (ROPs) 80 32
Compute Units (Pipelines) 48 8
Tensor Cores 192 No
Ray-tracing Cores 48 No
L1 Cache 128KB per cluster 48KB per cluster
L2 Cache 48MB shared 1MB shared
Instructions Per Cycle 2 IPC 2 IPC

Raw Performance

Pixel Fill Rate 201 GPixel/s 38 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate 482 GTexel/s 75 GTexel/s
FLOPS (FP32)
RTX 5070 +1188%
30.9 TFLOPS
2.4 TFLOPS

Physical

Interface PCIe 5.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
TGP 250 W 120 W
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Fabrication Process 4 nm 28 nm
Die Size 263 mm² 228 mm²
Transistor Count 31.1 billion 2 billion
Transistor Density 118.25 MTr/mm² 8.77 MTr/mm²

Memory

Memory Type GDDR7 GDDR5
Memory Size 12 GB 2 GB
Memory Clock 1750 MHz 1753 MHz
Effective Memory Speed 28000 Mbps 7000 Mbps
Bus 192-bit 128-bit
ECC No No
Memory Bandwidth
RTX 5070 +499%
672 GB/s
112.2 GB/s

API

DirectX 12.2 12
Vulkan 1.4 1.3
OpenGL 4.6 4.6
OpenCL 3.0 3.0
CUDA 12.0 5.2
Ray Tracing Yes No
DLSS DLSS 4 No
DisplayPort 2.1b 1.2

Cast your vote

Choose between two graphics cards
4 (66.7%)
2 (33.3%)
Total votes: 6

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