NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
VS
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
VS
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970

General info

The main nomenclature characteristics of video cards NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970. Pay attention to the position in the performance rating to choose the best one.

136
Place in performance rating
132
58.53
Value for money (0-100)
27.18
Pascal
Architecture
Maxwell
GP106
Code name
GM204
Desktop
Type
Desktop
18 August 2016 (5 years ago)
Release date
19 September 2014 (7 years ago)
$199
Launch price (MSRP)
$329
$441 (2.2x MSRP)
Price now
$290 (0.9x MSRP)
30.53
Value for money
34.98
GP106
GPU code name
GM204
Desktop
Market segment
Desktop

Technical specs

Choose the best graphics card between NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 based on manufacturing process, power consumption, and base frequency and overclocking potential of the GPU.

1152
Pipelines
1664
1506 MHz
Core clock speed
1050 MHz
1708 MHz
Boost Clock
1178 MHz
4,400 million
Transistor count
5,200 million
16 nm
Manufacturing process technology
28 nm
120 Watt
Power consumption (TDP)
148 Watt
123.0
Texture fill rate
109 billion/sec
3,935 gflops
Floating-point performance
3,920 gflops
no data
Maximum GPU temperature
98 °C
no data
CUDA cores
1664
1152
Pipelines / CUDA cores
1664
1708 MHz
Boost clock speed
1178 MHz
4,400 million
Number of transistors
5,200 million
120 Watt
Thermal design power (TDP)
148 Watt

Compatibility, dimensions and requirements

Additional technical information, does not greatly affect the performance rating when comparing the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970.

PCIe 3.0 x16
Interface
PCIe 3.0 x16
250 mm
Length
10.5" (26.7 cm)
1x 6-pin
Supplementary power connectors
2x 6-pins
no data
SLI options
+
no data
Recommended system power (PSU)
500 Watt
no data
Bus support
PCI Express 3.0
no data
Height
4.376" (11.1 cm)

Memory

Graphics card memory is used to store calculations. Modern software and 3D games require more and faster memory. The higher these parameters, the more productive the chip. The difference in these characteristics NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 can be seen in this section.

GDDR5
Memory type
GDDR5
3 GB
Maximum RAM amount
4 GB
192 Bit
Memory bus width
256 Bit
8008 MHz
Memory clock speed
7.0 GB/s
192.2 GB/s
Memory bandwidth
224 GB/s
no data
Shared memory
-

Video outputs and ports

The difference between the interfaces and ports of video cards NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970, the size and number of monitors.

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

Technologies

The difference between NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 is the additional functionality.

no data
3D Vision
+
no data
GPU Boost
2.0
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
+

API support

The difference in supported APIs is NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970. Hardware support (API) is not considered in synthetic benchmarks and performance tests.

12 (12_1)
DirectX
12 (12_1)
4.6
OpenGL
4.4
+
Vulkan
1.1.126
no data
Shader Model
6.4
no data
OpenCL
1.2

Gaming performance

Select form the list the required name to identify gaming performance for NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 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 1060 3 GB or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 good for gaming.


low
1280x720
med.
1920x1080
high
1920x1080
ultra
1920x1080
QHD
2560x1440
4K
3840x2160
Horizon Zero Dawn (2020) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
Death Stranding (2020) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
F1 2020 (2020) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
Gears Tactics (2020) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
Doom Eternal (2020) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
Legend
5 Stutter – Insufficient data. Similar graphics cards stutter, the game is likely to show a low frame rate. There will be some lags.
May Stutter – Insufficient data. Similar graphics cards stutter, the game is likely to show a low frame rate. There will be some lags.
30 Fluent – According to the results of benchmarks the game should run at 25 frames per second (fps)
40 Fluent – According to the results of benchmarks the game should run at 35 frames per second (fps)
60 Fluent – According to the results of benchmarks the game should run at 58 frames per second (fps)
May Run Fluently – Insufficient data. Similar graphics cards show a smooth frame rate, comfortable for the game.
? Uncertain – Graphics cards testing has shown that a slower card can provide a high and stable frame rate for the same operation.
Uncertain – The work of the video card in the game is still being studied. Interpolation among analogs is not possible.
The value depicts the average frame rate. Hovering over the value, you can get individual results.

Advantages of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB

1.6% faster in synthetic tests

Finer manufacturing process technology (16 nm vs 28 nm)

Less power consumption (120 Watt vs 148 Watt)

Advantages of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970

Cheaper ($290 (0.9x MSRP) vs $441 (2.2x MSRP))

More pipelines (1664 vs 1152)

More maximum RAM amount (4 GB vs 3 GB)

More memory bandwidth (224 GB/s vs 192.2 GB/s)

G-SYNC support

So, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970?

Judging by the results of synthetic and gaming tests, we recommend NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB .

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB versus NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 performance benchmarks comparison

User rating

0.0 Out of 0 CpusData Score NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
0.0 Out of 0 CpusData Score NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970