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GeForce GTX 970 vs GTX 1060

GeForce GTX 970
VS
GeForce GTX 1060
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970
GM204
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060
GP106

We compared two discrete desktop gaming GPUs: the GeForce GTX 970 4 GB with 13 pipelines and 1664 shaders against the 1 year and 10 months newer GTX 1060 6 GB that utilizes 10 pipelines and 1280 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
4 GB GDDR5
VS
6 GB GDDR5
7.2
(Bad)
Value Index
9.9
(Bad)

Key differences

Key distinctions and advantages of GTX 1060 over GTX 970
Reasons to consider the GeForce GTX 970
  • Has 30% more shading units (1664 vs 1280)
Reasons to consider the GeForce GTX 1060
  • Performs slightly better (up to 14%) in 3DMark Steel Nomad Lite
  • Manufactured using a more efficient 16 nm process technology
  • Includes 2 GB more video memory
  • Achieves 35% more points in the GeekBench 6 Compute test (39K vs 28K)

Gaming Performance

Frame rate comparison across popular AAA titles at different resolutions
GPU
GTX 970
vs
GTX 1060

Games

FPS Table
Forza Horizon 5
58
33
26
16
68
37
29
16
The Witcher 3
46
35
22
11
54
40
26
13
Counter-Strike 2
77
56
37
16
96
63
42
18
Far Cry 6
47
43
29
13
50
45
33
15
Hogwarts Legacy
25
22
15
-
32
22
18
9
CoD: Modern Warfare III
38
32
21
15
38
32
22
13
Ghost of Tsushima
24
16
14
-
29
20
16
9
Cyberpunk 2077
27
21
13
-
30
26
19
-
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
49
44
27
14
57
49
34
18
Average FPS by Resolution
1080p High 43 50
1080p Ultra 34 37
1440p Ultra 23 27
4K Ultra 12 13
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 970
3577
GTX 1060 +14%
4085
Time Spy 3665 4203
Solar Bay - 11278
Port Royal 4353 844
Fire Strike 12101 13132
Wild Life Extreme 6976 8510
Night Raid 47583 54686
Sources: 3DMark [1], [2]

GeekBench 6 OpenCL

GPU test for computational tasks (image processing, photography, computer vision, and ML)
GB6 Compute Score
GTX 970
28989
GTX 1060 +35%
39230
Background Blur 77.1 img/sec 100.2 img/sec
Face Detection 38.1 img/sec 48.1 img/sec
Horizon Detection 1.28 Gpixels/sec 1.54 Gpixels/sec
Edge Detection 2.08 Gpixels/sec 2.25 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian Blur 1.85 Gpixels/sec 2.58 Gpixels/sec
Feature Matching 0.17 Gpixels/sec 0.25 Gpixels/sec
Stereo Matching 92.9 Gpixels/sec 136.9 Gpixels/sec
Particle Physics 2443 FPS 4220.5 FPS
API OpenCL OpenCL
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]

Cinebench 2024 GPU

Hardware benchmark using Maxon's Cinema 4D rendering engine
Cinebench 2024 GPU
GTX 970
n/a
GTX 1060
2586

Passmark Graphics

Videocard test that focuses on compute shaders, multi-texturing, tessellation, and other features
G3D Mark Score
GTX 970
9636
GTX 1060 +4%
10026
G2D Mark 763 737
DirectX 11 71 FPS 72 FPS
DirectX 12 41 FPS 37 FPS
GPU Compute 4079 Ops/s 4246 Ops/s
Sources: PassMark [5], [6] – 53157 & 48280 samples

Blender

Rendering performance test for 3D modeling
Blender GPU
GTX 970
280.34
GTX 1060 +34%
375.82
Sources: Blender [9], [10] – 190 & 936 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 970 +3%
6791
GTX 1060
6580
GB6 ML Half Precision
GTX 970 +1%
6738
GTX 1060
6649
GB6 ML Quantized
GTX 970 +7%
5128
GTX 1060
4804
Image Classification (SP) 1852 1462
Image Segmentation (HP) 3622 3872
Image Super Resolution (Q) 8987 8136
Face Detection (HP) 7074 6356
Pose Estimation (Q) 43726 33181
Text Classification (SP) 1446 1806
Machine Translation (HP) 1576 3149
Object Detection (SP) 2425 2096
Depth Estimation (Q) 12902 10515
Style Transfer (SP) 86714 67831
Framework ONNX ONNX
Backend DirectML DirectML
Sources: Geekbench [9], [10]

Specifications

Technical specifications of GeForce GTX 970 and GTX 1060

General

Vendor Nvidia Nvidia
Build Discrete Discrete
Released September 19, 2014 July 19, 2016
Launch price (MSRP) $329 $299
Case Desktop Desktop
Purpose Gaming Gaming
Segment Mid-range Mid-range
Architecture Maxwell 2.0 Pascal
GPU Codename GM204 GP106
Successor - GeForce RTX 5070 - GeForce RTX 5060
Recommended CPU - - Intel Core i7 7700 or above
Desktop GPU rating (86th and 83rd place)

Graphics Processing Unit

Base Clock 1050 MHz 1506 MHz
Boost Clock 1178 MHz 1709 MHz
Shading Units 1664 1280
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) 104 80
Render Output Units (ROPs) 56 48
Compute Units (Pipelines) 13 10
Tensor Cores No No
Ray-tracing Cores No No
L1 Cache 48KB per cluster 48KB per cluster
L2 Cache 2MB shared 1536KB shared
Instructions Per Cycle 2 IPC 2 IPC

Raw Performance

Pixel Fill Rate 66 GPixel/s 82 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate 123 GTexel/s 137 GTexel/s
FLOPS (FP32)
GTX 970
3.9 TFLOPS
GTX 1060 +13%
4.4 TFLOPS

Physical

Interface PCIe 3.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x16
TGP 148 W 120 W
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Fabrication Process 28 nm 16 nm
Die Size 398 mm² 200 mm²
Transistor Count 5 billion 4 billion
Transistor Density 12.56 MTr/mm² 20 MTr/mm²

Memory

Memory Type GDDR5 GDDR5
Memory Size 4 GB 6 GB
Memory Clock 1753 MHz 2002 MHz
Effective Memory Speed 7000 Mbps 8000 Mbps
Bus 256-bit 192-bit
ECC No No
Memory Bandwidth
GTX 970 +17%
224.4 GB/s
GTX 1060
192.2 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 1060:
    - There is also 3GB memory version, which is about 10% slower.

Cast your vote

Choose between two graphics cards
14 (40%)
21 (60%)
Total votes: 35

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