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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
NVIDIA's second Maxwell-based desktop card from September 2014, built around a cut-down GM204 GPU with 1664 CUDA cores, a 256-bit bus and 224 GB/s of GDDR5 bandwidth inside a 145 W envelope. Launched at $329, it undercut the GTX 980 while staying close in gaming performance, and it remains a reference point for what a 4 GB, non-ray-tracing GPU delivers.
Pros
- 1664 CUDA cores and a 1178 MHz boost clock gave strong performance-per-watt for a 145 W card at launch
- 256-bit memory bus and 224 GB/s of bandwidth were wide for a $329 card in 2014
- Rated at just 145 W, needing only two 6-pin power connectors and no exotic power delivery
- Maxwell's efficiency let board partners fit it into very compact, quiet dual-slot coolers
Cons
- 4 GB of GDDR5 is thin by current standards and limits use with modern game textures
- No ray-tracing or tensor cores; Maxwell predates both hardware ray tracing and DLSS
- PCIe 3.0 interface and over a decade of driver/OS support cycles behind current cards
- Now sits far down modern GPU benchmark charts, well below current entry-level cards
Below average
Computed from specs & benchmarks via our public methodology.
Full specifications
Everything we track for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
General
- Announced
- 2014
- Architecture
- Maxwell
- Process
- 28 nm
- TDP
- 145 W
- Power connector
- 2x 6-pin
Cores & Clocks
- Shading units
- 1,664
- Base clock
- 1,050 MHz
- Boost clock
- 1,178 MHz
Memory
- VRAM
- 4 GB
- VRAM type
- GDDR5
- Bus width
- 256 bit
- Bandwidth
- 224 GB/s
Benchmarks
- 3DMark Time Spy
- 3,625Bottom 7%
- PassMark G3D
- 9,635Bottom 13%
Quick answers
Is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 good in 2026?
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 earns an Inno Score of 32.6/100 (“Below average”) based on its specs and benchmark results. NVIDIA's second Maxwell-based desktop card from September 2014, built around a cut-down GM204 GPU with 1664 CUDA cores, a 256-bit bus and 224 GB/s of GDDR5 bandwidth inside a 145 W envelope. Launched at $329, it undercut the GTX 980 while staying close in gaming performance, and it remains a reference point for what a 4 GB, non-ray-tracing GPU delivers.
What are the key specs of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970?
VRAM: 4 GB · Boost clock: 1,178 MHz · TDP: 145 W · 3DMark Time Spy: 3,625
What are the closest alternatives to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970?
Its closest rivals on InnoReviews are NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB, AMD Radeon RX 580 — open the comparison pages for a spec-by-spec breakdown.
