NVIDIA · GeForce GTX 900 Series

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 is a graphics card released on September 18, 2014, built on the Maxwell 2.0 architecture using a 28 nm process. It has 1,664 shading units, 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, 224.4 GB/s of memory bandwidth, a boost clock of 1.18 GHz and a 148 W board power rating. It scores 9,637 in the PassMark G3D benchmark. It supports DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.3.

Maxwell 2.0GM204-200-A128 nm

10/10 key specs recorded · 66 facts

Depth: 45 recorded fields, 9 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.

PassMark Videocard Benchmark NanoReview (Firecrawl extract)PassMark Videocard Benchmark NVIDIA Developer: Video Encode and Decode GPU Support Matrix Wikipedia GPU list tables (wikigrid-2026-09)

Shading units

1,664cores

13 SMs

Memory

4 GB

GDDR5 · 256-bit

Boost clock

1.18 GHz

1.05 GHz base

Board power

148 W

Performance

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 scores 9,637 in the PassMark G3D benchmark, higher than 88.7% of the 2,658 GPUs benchmarked (PassMark rank #310), measured across 53,315 submitted results. Its PassMark G2D score is 763.

PassMark G3D Mark

9,637

Rank #310
Faster than 88.7% of 2,658 GPUs
53,315 samples

0relative to the fastest GPU on record (41,928)

PassMark workload tests

DirectX 9 143 fps

reference: fastest recorded 526 fps · faster than 83% of 1,675 GPUs

DirectX 10 47 fps

reference: fastest recorded 231 fps · faster than 75.4% of 1,602 GPUs

DirectX 11 71 fps

reference: fastest recorded 362 fps · faster than 78% of 1,430 GPUs

DirectX 12 41 fps

reference: fastest recorded 213 fps · faster than 75% of 1,274 GPUs

GPU Compute 4,080 ops/s

reference: fastest recorded 26,591 ops/s · faster than 79.5% of 1,447 GPUs

Averages of PassMark PerformanceTest submissions; frames/sec are PassMark test-scene rates, not game FPS. Tests PassMark does not report for this card are omitted. PassMark listing

In the PassMark workload tests the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 averages DirectX 9 143 fps, DirectX 10 47 fps, DirectX 11 71 fps, DirectX 12 41 fps and GPU Compute 4,080 ops/s, across 53,315 submitted results. Frames per second are PassMark test-scene rates, not game frame rates.

As stated by PassMark

Category Desktop

Bus interface PCIe 3.0 x16

Max memory 4 GB

Core clock 1050 MHz

Memory clock 1752.5 MHz

DirectX 12

OpenGL 4.5

Max TDP 145 W

First benchmarked 2014-09-19

Samples 53,315

PassMark listing (collected 2026-09-30)

PassMark's own listing for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 states the PCIe 3.0 x16 interface, up to 4 GB of memory, a core clock of 1050 MHz, DirectX 12 and OpenGL 4.5, first benchmarked on 2014-09-19. These are PassMark's figures, shown separately from the specification tables above.

Not to be confused with

This page covers the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 specifically. It is a different product from NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970XM FORCE, which have their own specifications. Check the exact model name before comparing figures.

Graphics processor

Architecture Maxwell 2.0

Codename GM204-200-A1

Chip Not recorded

Process node 28 nm

Transistors 5,200 M

Die size 398 mm²

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 is based on the Maxwell 2.0 architecture, uses the GM204-200-A1 graphics processor, is manufactured on a 28 nm process, contains 5,200 million transistors and has a die size of 398 mm².

Shader configuration

Shading units 1,664

Compute units Not recorded

Streaming multiprocessors 13

Execution units Not recorded

Texture units (TMUs) 104

Render output units (ROPs) 56

Ray tracing cores Not recorded

Tensor / AI cores Not recorded

XMX engines Not recorded

Infinity cache Not recorded

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 has 1,664 shading units, 13 streaming multiprocessors, 104 texture mapping units and 56 render output units.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 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 970. Feex has no recorded ray tracing core count for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970.

Clock speeds

Base clock 1.05 GHz

Boost clock 1.18 GHz

Game clock Not recorded

Memory clock 1.75 GHz

Effective memory clock Not recorded

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 runs at a base clock of 1.05 GHz and boosts to 1.18 GHz.

Memory

Size 4 GB

Type GDDR5

Bus width 256-bit

Bandwidth 224.4 GB/s

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 is equipped with 4 GB of GDDR5 memory, uses a 256-bit memory bus and delivers 224.4 GB/s of memory bandwidth.

Board and power

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 has a board power rating of 148 W and it connects over PCIe 3.0 x16.

Board power (TDP) 148 W

Total board power Not recorded

Suggested PSU Not recorded

Power connectors Not recorded

Slot width Not recorded

Length Not recorded

Width Not recorded

Height Not recorded

Cooler Not recorded

Max temperature Not recorded

Bus interface PCIe 3.0 x16

Market

Launched September 18, 2014

Launch price $329

Status Not recorded

Form factor Not recorded

Segment Desktop

Series GeForce GTX 900 Series

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 was released on September 18, 2014 and launched at a price of $329.

Benchmarks

PassMark G3D 9,637

PassMark G2D 763

Rank #310

Samples 53,315

Graphics and compute APIs

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 supports DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.3.

DirectX 12

OpenGL 4.6

Vulkan 1.3

Feex has no recorded CUDA compute capability for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970. Feex has no recorded OpenCL version for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970.

Media engine

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 provides hardware encode for H.264 (AVC) and HEVC (H.265) and hardware decode for H.264 (AVC). It does not support hardware encode for AV1 and decode for HEVC (H.265), AV1 and VP9.

NVIDIA NVENC encoder 5th Generation Encoder engines: 2NVIDIA's dedicated video-encoding engine, used by streaming and capture software; newer generations encode more efficiently.

NVIDIA NVDEC decoder 1st Generation Decoder engines: 1NVIDIA's dedicated video-decoding engine; newer generations support more codecs and formats.

Hardware video codec support of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
Codec	Encode	Decode
H.264 (AVC)	Supported4:4:4: Yes	Supported
HEVC (H.265)	Supported4:2:2: No; 4:4:4: No; 10-bit: No; B-frames: No; 8K: No	Not supported
AV1	Not supported	Not supported
VP9	Not stated by the vendor	Not supported

supported explicitly not supported not stated by the vendor

Media engines recorded for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970: NVIDIA NVENC encoder (5th Generation, encoder engines: 2) and NVIDIA NVDEC decoder (1st Generation, decoder engines: 1).

Frequently asked questions

How much VRAM does the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 have?

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus. Its memory bandwidth is 224.4 GB/s.

How much power does the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 use and what power supply does it need?

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 has a board power rating of 148 W.

How fast is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970?

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 scores 9,637 in the PassMark G3D benchmark, higher than 88.7% of the 2,658 GPUs benchmarked. Its PassMark rank is #310. In the PassMark DirectX 12 test it averages 41 fps.

Does the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 support AV1 encoding?

No. Feex records AV1 hardware encoding as explicitly not supported on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970.

What bus interface does the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 use?

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 connects over PCIe 3.0 x16.

When was the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 released and how much did it cost at launch?

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 was released on September 18, 2014 and launched at a price of $329.

Corrections to this record

After an audit, 2 values on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 record were corrected and 1 empty field was filled from sources. Each change is listed with its old value, new value, rule and sources.

Transistors: ~~5,000 million~~ → 5,200 million. Rule: Transistor count restored to full precision. stored 5000 is 5200 truncated to whole billions. Sources: Wikipedia: List of Nvidia graphics processing units (revision 1377107724); Wikipedia: List of Nvidia desktop graphics processing units (revision 1375708460).
Compute units: 13 cleared (now Not recorded). Rule: NVIDIA SM count moved out of compute units. compute units 13 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): 13 (was Not recorded). Rule: NVIDIA SM count recorded in the SM column. compute units 13 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.