GeForce GTX 960M vs Apple M1 8-Core GPU

Place in the ranking	360	492
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Power efficiency	no data	8.01
Architecture	no data	Maxwell (2014−2017)
GPU code name	no data	GM107
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Release date	10 November 2020 (4 years ago)	13 March 2015 (9 years ago)

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	8	640
Core clock speed	1278 MHz	1096 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	1176 MHz
Number of transistors	no data	1,870 million
Manufacturing process technology	5 nm	28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	no data	75 Watt
Texture fill rate	no data	47.04
Floating-point processing power	no data	1.505 TFLOPS
ROPs	no data	16
TMUs	no data	40

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Laptop size	no data	medium sized
Bus support	no data	PCI Express 3.0
Interface	no data	MXM-B (3.0)
SLI options	-	+

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory type	no data	GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount	no data	4 GB
Memory bus width	no data	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	no data	2500 MHz
Memory bandwidth	no data	80 GB/s
Shared memory	+	-

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors	no data	No outputs
VGA аnalog display support	no data	+
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support	no data	+
HDMI	-	+

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

GameStream	-	+
GeForce ShadowPlay	-	+
GPU Boost	no data	2.0
GameWorks	-	+
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder	-	+
Optimus	-	+
BatteryBoost	-	+
Ansel	-	+

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX	no data	12 (11_0)
Shader Model	no data	5.1
OpenGL	no data	4.5
OpenCL	no data	1.2
Vulkan	-	1.1.126
CUDA	-	+

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

Apple M1 8-Core GPU 14.49
+65.4%

GTX 960M 8.76

3DMark Ice Storm GPU

Ice Storm Graphics is an obsolete benchmark, part of 3DMark suite. Ice Storm was used to measure entry level laptops and Windows-based tablets performance. It utilizes DirectX 11 feature level 9 to display a battle between two space fleets near a frozen planet in 1280x720 resolution. Discontinued in January 2020, it is now superseded by 3DMark Night Raid.

Apple M1 8-Core GPU 280200
+23.8%

GTX 960M 226308

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:

900p	150−160 +57.9%	95 −57.9%
Full HD	29 −17.2%	34 +17.2%
1440p	24−27 +60%	15 −60%
4K	21−24 +50%	14 −50%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

21−24
+57.1%

14−16

−57.1%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	30−35 +28%	25 −28%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	21−24 +76.9%	12−14 −76.9%
Battlefield 5	45−50 +53.3%	30 −53.3%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	27−30 +55.6%	18−20 −55.6%
Cyberpunk 2077	21−24 +57.1%	14−16 −57.1%
Far Cry 5	30−35 +17.9%	28 −17.9%
Far Cry New Dawn	35−40 +25.8%	31 −25.8%
Forza Horizon 4	90−95 +9.5%	84 −9.5%
Hitman 3	27−30 +58.8%	16−18 −58.8%
Horizon Zero Dawn	70−75 +44%	50−55 −44%
Metro Exodus	45−50 +51.6%	31 −51.6%
Red Dead Redemption 2	35−40 +62.5%	24−27 −62.5%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	45−50 −4.3%	48 +4.3%
Watch Dogs: Legion	75−80 +28.8%	55−60 −28.8%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	30−35 +3.2%	31 −3.2%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	21−24 +76.9%	12−14 −76.9%
Battlefield 5	45−50 +100%	23 −100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	27−30 +55.6%	18−20 −55.6%
Cyberpunk 2077	21−24 +57.1%	14−16 −57.1%
Far Cry 5	30−35 +37.5%	24 −37.5%
Far Cry New Dawn	35−40 +69.6%	23 −69.6%
Forza Horizon 4	90−95 +29.6%	71 −29.6%
Hitman 3	27−30 +58.8%	16−18 −58.8%
Horizon Zero Dawn	70−75 +44%	50−55 −44%
Metro Exodus	45−50 +80.8%	26 −80.8%
Red Dead Redemption 2	35−40 +62.5%	24−27 −62.5%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	45−50 +58.6%	27−30 −58.6%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	30−35 −115%	73 +115%
Watch Dogs: Legion	75−80 +28.8%	55−60 −28.8%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	30−35 +191%	11 −191%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	21−24 +76.9%	12−14 −76.9%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	27−30 +55.6%	18−20 −55.6%
Cyberpunk 2077	21−24 +57.1%	14−16 −57.1%
Far Cry 5	30−35 +83.3%	18 −83.3%
Forza Horizon 4	90−95 +268%	25 −268%
Hitman 3	27−30 +58.8%	16−18 −58.8%
Horizon Zero Dawn	70−75 +44%	50−55 −44%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	45−50 +58.6%	27−30 −58.6%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	30−35 +143%	14 −143%
Watch Dogs: Legion	75−80 +28.8%	55−60 −28.8%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

35−40
+62.5%

24−27

−62.5%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	27−30 +92.9%	14 −92.9%
Far Cry New Dawn	21−24 +46.7%	15 −46.7%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	14−16 +75%	8 −75%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	10−12 +175%	4−5 −175%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	14−16 +66.7%	9−10 −66.7%
Cyberpunk 2077	7−8 +75%	4−5 −75%
Far Cry 5	16−18 +60%	10 −60%
Forza Horizon 4	70−75 +60%	45 −60%
Hitman 3	16−18 +41.7%	12−14 −41.7%
Horizon Zero Dawn	27−30 +61.1%	18−20 −61.1%
Metro Exodus	24−27 +60%	15 −60%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	24−27 +140%	10−11 −140%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16 +87.5%	8−9 −87.5%
Watch Dogs: Legion	85−90 +55.4%	55−60 −55.4%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

21−24
+53.3%

14−16

−53.3%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	14−16 +133%	6 −133%
Far Cry New Dawn	10−11 +42.9%	7 −42.9%
Hitman 3	10−11 +100%	5−6 −100%
Horizon Zero Dawn	65−70 +97.1%	35−40 −97.1%
Metro Exodus	12−14 +62.5%	8 −62.5%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 +30%	10 −30%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	8−9 +60%	5−6 −60%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	7−8 +75%	4−5 −75%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	7−8 +75%	4−5 −75%
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%
Far Cry 5	8−9 +100%	4 −100%
Forza Horizon 4	18−20 +72.7%	10−12 −72.7%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	12−14 +160%	5−6 −160%
Watch Dogs: Legion	5−6 +66.7%	3−4 −66.7%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

12−14
+44.4%

9−10

−44.4%

This is how Apple M1 8-Core GPU and GTX 960M compete in popular games:

Apple M1 8-Core GPU is 58% faster in 900p
GTX 960M is 17% faster in 1080p
Apple M1 8-Core GPU is 60% faster in 1440p
Apple M1 8-Core GPU is 50% faster in 4K

Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:

in Forza Horizon 4, with 1080p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the Apple M1 8-Core GPU is 268% faster.
in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, with 1080p resolution and the High Preset, the GTX 960M is 115% faster.

All in all, in popular games: