GeForce GTX 870M vs GeForce GTX 960

Intro

Compare those specs to the GeForce GTX 960, which features a GPU core clock speed of 1127 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1750 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 1024 Stream Processors, 64 TAUs, and 32 ROPs.

Display Graphs

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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 960		7627 points
GeForce GTX 870M		4770 points
	Difference: 2857 (60%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 870M		110 Watts
GeForce GTX 960		120 Watts
	Difference: 10 Watts (9%)

Memory Bandwidth

In theory, the GeForce GTX 960 is 17% quicker than the GeForce GTX 870M overall, due to its higher data rate. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		112000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 870M		96000 MB/sec
	Difference: 16000 (17%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 870M should be quite a bit (more or less 46%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTX 960. (explain)

GeForce GTX 870M		105392 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 960		72128 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 33264 (46%)

Pixel Rate

If using a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 960 is superior to the GeForce GTX 870M, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 960		36064 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 870M		22584 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 13480 (60%)

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 largest amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transported across the external memory interface within a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR RAM, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is worked out by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.