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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
- 3,645Bottom 11%
- PassMark G3D
- 9,637Bottom 16%
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: 3,645
What are the closest alternatives to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970?
Its closest rivals on InnoReviews are Intel Arc A310, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB — open the comparison pages for a spec-by-spec breakdown.
