GeForce GTX 860M vs GeForce GTX 970M

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 970M, which features clock speeds of 924 MHz on the GPU, and 1000 MHz on the 3072 MB of GDDR5 RAM. It features 1280 SPUs as well as 80 TAUs and 48 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Benchmarks

These are real-world performance benchmarks that were submitted by Hardware Compare users. The scores seen here are the average of all benchmarks submitted for each respective test and hardware.

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score

GeForce GTX 970M		7520 points
GeForce GTX 860M		4340 points
	Difference: 3180 (73%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 860M		45 Watts
GeForce GTX 970M		75 Watts
	Difference: 30 Watts (67%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 970M should be quite a bit faster than the GeForce GTX 860M in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970M		96000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 860M		64000 MB/sec
	Difference: 32000 (50%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 860M will be just a bit (more or less 4%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTX 970M. (explain)

GeForce GTX 860M		76512 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 970M		73920 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 2592 (4%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 970M will be a lot (about 248%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce GTX 860M, and also able to handle higher resolutions without slowing down too much. (explain)

GeForce GTX 970M		44352 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 860M		12752 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 31600 (248%)

Please note that the above 'benchmarks' are all just theoretical - the results were calculated based on the card's specifications, and real-world performance may (and probably will) vary at least a bit.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the maximum amount of information (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in a second. It's worked out by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. In the case of DDR type memory, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed in one second. This is calculated by multiplying the total number of texture units by the core speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics chip can possibly record to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the amount of Render Output Units by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel output rate is also dependant on many other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to get to the max fill rate.