NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970

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GeForce GTX 1060 compared with GeForce GTX 970

	NVIDIAGeForce GTX 1060	NVIDIAGeForce GTX 970
Overview
Released
Released	July 2016	September 2014
Performance
Chip maker
Chip maker	NVIDIA	NVIDIA
Architecture
Architecture	Pascal	Maxwell
Shader cores
Shader cores	1,280 or 1,152	1,664
Boost clock
Boost clock	1,708 MHz or –	1,178 MHz
Architecture
Architecture	Main figures and photo describe the original 6 GB Founders Edition. The 3 GB card has 1152 CUDA cores rather than 1280. Later 9 Gbps GDDR5 and GDDR5X cards were partner designs; unpublished general revision figures remain blank in their configurations.	Main figures follow NVIDIA's retained 900-series table. The photo shows MSI's GTX 970 4GD5 partner board. NVIDIA's September 18 launch release says the cards are now available; later coverage commonly dates launch September 19.
Manufacturing process
Manufacturing process	16 nm FinFET (original GP106)	–
Ray tracing
Ray tracing	No dedicated RT Cores	No dedicated RT Cores
AI cores
AI cores	No Tensor Cores	No Tensor Cores
Upscaling and frame generation
Upscaling and frame generation	No NVIDIA DLSS	No NVIDIA DLSS
Base clock
Base clock	1506 MHz base and 1708 MHz boost for the original 6 GB and stock-clock 3 GB cards. MSI GAMING X+ 6G (9 Gbps GDDR5) has 1708 MHz boost in Silent Mode, 1784 MHz Gaming Mode and 1809 MHz OC Mode. MSI ARMOR 6GD5X OC specifies 1544 MHz base and 1759 MHz boost; these factory OC figures are not assigned to every GDDR5X card.	1050 MHz reference; MSI GTX 970 4GD5 lists 1051 MHz base and 1178 MHz boost.
Cache
Cache	1536 KB L2 cache (original GP106)	–
Memory
Video memory
Video memory	6 GB GDDR5, 3 GB GDDR5 or 6 GB GDDR5X	4 GB GDDR5
Memory bus
Memory bus	192-bit	256-bit (better)
Memory bandwidth
Memory bandwidth	192 GB/s or –	–
Memory detail
Memory detail	Original 6 GB and 3 GB cards have 8 Gbps GDDR5, 192-bit bus and 192 GB/s bandwidth. NVIDIA confirms the later 9 Gbps GDDR5 refresh; MSI GAMING X+ lists 9026 MHz Gaming/Silent and 9126 MHz OC memory speed. MSI ARMOR 6GD5X OC verifies 6 GB GDDR5X, 192-bit bus and 8008 MHz memory speed, but publishes no bandwidth figure. Later revisions' first-sale dates are unverified.	7 Gbps GDDR5. NVIDIA confirms 4 GB is usable, divided into a primary 3.5 GB segment and a slower 512 MB segment. EVGA's stock 04G-P4-1970 datasheet lists 7010 MHz effective and 224.3 GB/s; that board figure is not used as a universal main bandwidth value.
Connections and power
Board power
Board power	120 W or –	145 W
Interface
Interface	PCIe 3.0	PCIe 3.0
Display outputs
Display outputs	Original Founders Edition has 3 × DisplayPort 1.3/1.4, HDMI 2.0b and dual-link DVI; partner outputs vary	MSI GTX 970 4GD5 has 3 × DisplayPort 1.2, 1 × HDMI 1.4a/2.0 and 1 × dual-link DVI-I; up to 4 displays.
Maximum resolution
Maximum resolution	7680 × 4320 (PNY stock 3 GB specification)	7680 × 4320 (MSI GTX 970 4GD5)
Power connector
Power connector	1 × PCIe 6-pin on the original Founders Edition and stock PNY 3 GB; MSI GAMING X+ uses 1 × 8-pin, and MSI ARMOR GDDR5X OC uses 1 × 8-pin plus 1 × 6-pin	2 × 6-pin (reference)
Recommended power supply
Recommended power supply	400 W (PNY stock 3 GB, MSI GAMING X+ and MSI ARMOR GDDR5X OC)	500 W
Size (reference card)
Size (reference card)	–	269 × 111 × 38 mm and 890 g (pictured MSI GTX 970 4GD5); EVGA stock 04G-P4-1970 is 241.3 × 111.15 mm, dual-slot.
Slot width
Slot width	2-slot original Founders Edition; partner cards vary	–