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GeForce GTX 960 vs GTX 1050

GeForce GTX 960
VS
GeForce GTX 1050
Nvidia GeForce GTX 960
GM206
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050
GP107

We compared two discrete desktop gaming GPUs: the GeForce GTX 960 with 8 pipelines and 1024 shaders against the 1 year and 9 months newer GTX 1050 that utilizes 5 pipelines and 640 shaders. Here you will find complete details about specs, efficiency, performance tests, and more.

  1. Review
  2. Differences
  3. Gaming performance
  4. Benchmarks
  5. AI
  6. Specs
  7. Comments

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
NanoReview 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
2 GB GDDR5
VS
2 GB GDDR5
18.5
(Bad)
Value Index
15.3
(Bad)

Key differences

Key distinctions and advantages of GTX 1050 over GTX 960
Reasons to consider the GeForce GTX 960
  • Performs better (up to 19%) in 3DMark Steel Nomad Lite
  • 26% higher maximum theoretical performance (2.4 vs 1.9 TFLOPS)
  • Has 60% more shading units (1024 vs 640)
Reasons to consider the GeForce GTX 1050
  • Manufactured using a more efficient 14 nm process technology

Gaming Performance

Frame rate comparison across popular AAA titles at different resolutions
GPU
GTX 960
vs
GTX 1050

Games

FPS Table
Forza Horizon 5
29
14
13
-
21
11
10
-
The Witcher 3
24
18
13
-
15
15
11
-
Counter-Strike 2
46
29
19
-
37
21
14
-
Far Cry 6
31
27
16
10
24
24
12
-
Hogwarts Legacy
18
12
10
-
14
12
9
-
CoD: Modern Warfare III
30
24
16
12
28
21
16
11
Ghost of Tsushima
15
-
-
-
12
-
-
-
Cyberpunk 2077
14
11
-
-
11
-
-
-
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
28
26
15
-
23
17
11
-
Average FPS by Resolution
1080p High 26 21
1080p Ultra 19 15
1440p Ultra 13 11
4K Ultra - -
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
GTX 960 +19%
2179
GTX 1050
1828
Time Spy 2302 1739
Fire Strike 7720 6772
Wild Life Extreme 4543 3881
Night Raid 31121 27079
Sources: 3DMark [1], [2]

GeekBench 6 OpenCL

GPU test for computational tasks (image processing, photography, computer vision, and ML)
GB6 Compute Score
GTX 960
20370
GTX 1050 +1%
20580
Background Blur 51.7 img/sec 52.5 img/sec
Face Detection 26.1 img/sec 24.9 img/sec
Horizon Detection 0.84 Gpixels/sec 0.79 Gpixels/sec
Edge Detection 1.36 Gpixels/sec 1.16 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian Blur 1.26 Gpixels/sec 1.25 Gpixels/sec
Feature Matching 0.14 Gpixels/sec 0.2 Gpixels/sec
Stereo Matching 64.9 Gpixels/sec 65.5 Gpixels/sec
Particle Physics 1825 FPS 1832.4 FPS
API OpenCL OpenCL
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]

Cinebench 2024 GPU

Hardware benchmark using Maxon's Cinema 4D rendering engine
Cinebench 2024 GPU
GTX 960
n/a
GTX 1050
2216

Passmark Graphics

Videocard test that focuses on compute shaders, multi-texturing, tessellation, and other features
G3D Mark Score
GTX 960 +22%
6150
GTX 1050
5051
G2D Mark 677 458
DirectX 11 42 FPS 38 FPS
DirectX 12 28 FPS 21 FPS
GPU Compute 2801 Ops/s 2111 Ops/s
Sources: PassMark [5], [6] – 26932 & 25947 samples

Blender

Rendering performance test for 3D modeling
Blender GPU
GTX 960
166.86
GTX 1050 +1%
169.32
Sources: Blender [9], [10] – 90 & 261 samples
Add your GPU benchmark result

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
GTX 960 +2%
3784
GTX 1050
3704
GB6 ML Half Precision
GTX 960 +18%
3830
GTX 1050
3258
GB6 ML Quantized
GTX 960 +1%
2724
GTX 1050
2694
Image Classification (SP) 1492 1249
Image Segmentation (HP) 2183 1833
Image Super Resolution (Q) 3618 3934
Face Detection (HP) 3654 3004
Pose Estimation (Q) 11306 14474
Text Classification (SP) 1315 1249
Machine Translation (HP) 2085 1857
Object Detection (SP) 1927 1624
Depth Estimation (Q) 5491 5567
Style Transfer (SP) 22683 24188
Framework ONNX ONNX
Backend DirectML DirectML
Sources: Geekbench [9], [10]

Specifications

Technical specifications of GeForce GTX 960 and GTX 1050

General

Vendor Nvidia Nvidia
Build Discrete Discrete
Released January 22, 2015 October 25, 2016
Launch price (MSRP) $199 $109
Case Desktop Desktop
Purpose Gaming Gaming
Segment Mid-range Entry-level
Architecture Maxwell 2.0 Pascal
GPU Codename GM206 GP107
Successor - - GeForce GTX 1650
Recommended CPU - - Intel Core i5 7400 or above
Desktop GPU rating (90th and 92nd place)

Graphics Processing Unit

Base Clock 1127 MHz 1354 MHz
Boost Clock 1178 MHz 1455 MHz
Shading Units 1024 640
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) 64 40
Render Output Units (ROPs) 32 32
Compute Units (Pipelines) 8 5
Tensor Cores No No
Ray-tracing Cores No No
L1 Cache 48KB per cluster 48KB per cluster
L2 Cache 1MB shared 1024KB shared
Instructions Per Cycle 2 IPC 2 IPC

Raw Performance

Pixel Fill Rate 38 GPixel/s 47 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate 75 GTexel/s 58 GTexel/s
FLOPS (FP32)
GTX 960 +26%
2.4 TFLOPS
GTX 1050
1.9 TFLOPS

Physical

Interface PCIe 3.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
TGP 120 W 75 W
Manufacturing TSMC Samsung
Fabrication Process 28 nm 14 nm
Die Size 228 mm² 132 mm²
Transistor Count 2 billion 3 billion
Transistor Density 8.77 MTr/mm² 22.73 MTr/mm²

Memory

Memory Type GDDR5 GDDR5
Memory Size 2 GB 2 GB
Memory Clock 1753 MHz 1752 MHz
Effective Memory Speed 7000 Mbps 7000 Mbps
Bus 128-bit 128-bit
ECC No No
Memory Bandwidth
GTX 960
112.2 GB/s
GTX 1050
112.1 GB/s

API

DirectX 12 12
Vulkan 1.3 1.3
OpenGL 4.6 4.6
OpenCL 3.0 3.0
CUDA 5.2 6.1
Ray Tracing No No
DLSS No No
DisplayPort 1.2 1.4a
Further details
Notes on GTX 1050:
    - You can also find models with either 3GB or 4GB of memory.

Cast your vote

Choose between two graphics cards
15 (55.6%)
12 (44.4%)
Total votes: 27

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