NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 is a graphics card released on January 22, 2015, built on the Maxwell 2.0 architecture using a 28 nm process. It has 1,024 shading units, 2 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus, 112.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth, a boost clock of 1.18 GHz and a 120 W board power rating. It scores 6,147 in the PassMark G3D benchmark. It supports DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.3.
Depth: 45 recorded fields, 4 features, 5 PassMark workloads
Specification data last verified October 1, 2026 against PassMark Videocard Benchmark, NanoReview (Firecrawl extract), NVIDIA Developer: Video Encode and Decode GPU Support Matrix and Wikipedia GPU list tables (wikigrid-2026-09). Coverage: 10 of 10 tracked specifications recorded.
Performance
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 scores 6,147 in the PassMark G3D benchmark, higher than 83.4% of the 2,658 GPUs benchmarked (PassMark rank #448), measured across 26,943 submitted results. Its PassMark G2D score is 677.
PassMark workload tests
In the PassMark workload tests the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 averages DirectX 9 101 fps, DirectX 10 25 fps, DirectX 11 42 fps, DirectX 12 28 fps and GPU Compute 2,801 ops/s, across 26,943 submitted results. Frames per second are PassMark test-scene rates, not game frame rates.
As stated by PassMark
PassMark's own listing for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 states the PCIe 3.0 x16 interface, up to 4 GB of memory, a core clock of 1127 MHz, DirectX 12.0 and OpenGL 4.5, first benchmarked on 2015-01-23. These are PassMark's figures, shown separately from the specification tables above.
Not to be confused with
This page covers the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 specifically. It is a different product from NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960A, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M, which have their own specifications. Check the exact model name before comparing figures.
Graphics processor
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 is based on the Maxwell 2.0 architecture, uses the GM206-300-A1 graphics processor, is manufactured on a 28 nm process, contains 2,000 million transistors and has a die size of 228 mm².
Shader configuration
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 has 1,024 shading units, 8 streaming multiprocessors, 64 texture mapping units and 32 render output units.
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 does not use XMX engines; those are specific to Intel Arc graphics. Infinity Cache is an AMD architectural feature and does not apply to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960. Feex has no recorded ray tracing core count for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960.
Clock speeds
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 runs at a base clock of 1.13 GHz and boosts to 1.18 GHz.
Memory
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 is equipped with 2 GB of GDDR5 memory, uses a 128-bit memory bus and delivers 112.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth.
Board and power
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 has a board power rating of 120 W and it connects over PCIe 3.0 x16.
Market
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 was released on January 22, 2015 and launched at a price of $199.
Benchmarks
Graphics and compute APIs
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 supports DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.3.
Feex has no recorded CUDA compute capability for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960. Feex has no recorded OpenCL version for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960.
Media engine
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 provides hardware encode for H.264 (AVC) and HEVC (H.265). It does not support hardware encode for AV1.
| Codec | Encode | Decode |
|---|---|---|
| H.264 (AVC) | Supported4:4:4: Yes | Not stated by the vendor |
| HEVC (H.265) | Supported4:2:2: No; 4:4:4: No; 10-bit: No; B-frames: No; 8K: No | Not stated by the vendor |
| AV1 | Not supported | Not stated by the vendor |
supported explicitly not supported not stated by the vendor
Not listed: VP9. No source Feex holds states whether the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 supports this codec; that is silence, not a statement that it is unsupported.
Media engines recorded for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960: NVIDIA NVENC encoder (5th Generation, encoder engines: 1).
Naming and aliases
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 is also known by other names: PassMark also lists it as (PE64) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (Mobile).
Frequently asked questions
How much VRAM does the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 have?
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 has 2 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus. Its memory bandwidth is 112.2 GB/s.
How much power does the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 use and what power supply does it need?
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 has a board power rating of 120 W.
How fast is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960?
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 scores 6,147 in the PassMark G3D benchmark, higher than 83.4% of the 2,658 GPUs benchmarked. Its PassMark rank is #448. In the PassMark DirectX 12 test it averages 28 fps.
Does the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 support AV1 encoding?
No. Feex records AV1 hardware encoding as explicitly not supported on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960.
What bus interface does the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 use?
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 connects over PCIe 3.0 x16.
When was the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 released and how much did it cost at launch?
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 was released on January 22, 2015 and launched at a price of $199.
Corrections to this record
After an audit, 1 value on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 record was corrected and 1 empty field was filled from sources. Each change is listed with its old value, new value, rule and sources.
- Compute units:
8cleared (now Not recorded). Rule: NVIDIA SM count moved out of compute units. compute units 8 on an NVIDIA GPU is its SM count (stated by the Wikipedia series article). Sources: Wikipedia: GeForce 900 series (revision 1362915367).
1 filled value
- Streaming multiprocessors (SMs): 8 (was Not recorded). Rule: NVIDIA SM count recorded in the SM column. compute units 8 on an NVIDIA GPU is its SM count (stated by the Wikipedia series article). Sources: Wikipedia: GeForce 900 series (revision 1362915367).
The audit log is public: all changes for this GPU, the corrections overview and the method.
Similar performance
Compare the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960
Side-by-side specification comparisons against cards in the same performance band.