GeForce GTX 965M vs Radeon HD 8970M

In this comparison between GeForce GTX 965M and Radeon HD 8970M you will find out which graphics card performs better in today's games. Bear in mind that third-party versions may have more efficient cooling and higher clock speeds. This will increase cards' performance, though not by much. In addition to raw power you should also take into account the dimensions. Thicker models simply will not fit into a small mini-ITX case. The resolution of your monitor also affects the choice, since 4K gameplay requires a more powerful GPU. And don't overspend on the graphics card. Other parts of your build may also need to be upgraded, save some money for the CPU or power supply. For some people GeForce GTX 965M will be the best choice, for others Radeon HD 8970M will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.

GeForce GTX 965M and Radeon HD 8970M are Laptop Graphics Cards

Note: GeForce GTX 965M and Radeon HD 8970M are only used in laptop graphics. They have lower GPU clock speed compared to the desktop variant, which results in lower power consumption, but also 10-30% lower gaming performance. Check available laptop models with GeForce GTX 965M or Radeon HD 8970M here:

Main Specs

  GeForce GTX 965M Radeon HD 8970M
Power consumption (TDP) 100 Watt
Interface MXM-B (3.0) PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors None
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 4 GB 4 GB
Display Connectors No outputs No outputs
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  • GeForce GTX 965M is connected by MXM-B (3.0), and Radeon HD 8970M uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • GeForce GTX 965M and Radeon HD 8970M have maximum RAM of 4 GB.
  • Both cards are used in Laptops.
  • GeForce GTX 965M is build with Maxwell architecture, and Radeon HD 8970M - with GCN.
  • Core clock speed of GeForce GTX 965M is 94 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 8970M.
  • GeForce GTX 965M and Radeon HD 8970M are manufactured by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 8970M is 2300 MHz higher, than GeForce GTX 965M.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 20−22 20−22
ultra / 1080p 12−14 12−14
QHD / 1440p 6−7 6−7
4K / 2160p 5−6 5−6
low / 720p 35−40 35−40
medium / 1080p 24−27 24−27
GeForce GTX 965M and Radeon HD 8970M have the same average FPS in Assassin's Creed Odyssey.

Full Specs

  GeForce GTX 965M Radeon HD 8970M
Architecture Maxwell GCN
Code name N16E-GS, N16E-GR Neptune
Type Laptop Laptop
Release date 5 January 2015 15 May 2013
Pipelines 1024 1280
Core clock speed 944 MHz 850 MHz
Boost Clock 950 / 1151 MHz 900 MHz
Transistor count 2,940 million 2,800 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 73.60 72.00
Floating-point performance 2,355 gflops 2,304 gflops
Memory bus width 128 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 2500 MHz 4800 MHz
Memory bandwidth 80 GB/s 153.6 GB/s
Shared memory - -
G-SYNC support +
DirectX 12 (12_1) 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 6.4 5.1
OpenGL 4.5 4.6
OpenCL 1.1 1.2
Vulkan 1.1 1.2.131
CUDA +
CUDA cores 1024
Bus support PCI Express 3.0
SLI options +
HDMI +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 226 Mh/s 273 Mh/s
Laptop size large large
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support +
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder +
Optimus +
GameStream +
GeForce ShadowPlay +
GPU Boost 2.0
GameWorks +
BatteryBoost +
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