NVIDIA started GeForce GTX 950 sales 20 August 2015 at a recommended price of $159 . This is a desktop graphics card based on a Maxwell 2.0 architecture and made with 28 nm manufacturing process. It is primarily aimed at gamer market. 2 GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 6.6 GB/s are supplied, and together with 128 Bit memory interface this creates a bandwidth of 105.6 GB/s.

Compatibility-wise, this is a dual-slot graphics card attached via PCIe 3.0 x16 interface. Its manufacturer default version has a length of 202 mm. 1x 6-pin power connector is required, and power consumption is at 90 Watt.

Primary details

Some basic facts about GeForce GTX 950: architecture, market segment, release date etc.

Place in the ranking	382
Place by popularity	94
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	8.83
Power efficiency	10.60	of 100.00 (Radeon 890M)
Architecture	Maxwell 2.0 (2014−2019)
GPU code name	GM206
Market segment	Desktop
Release date	20 August 2015 (9 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$159	of 14,999 (Quadro Plex 7000)

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

The higher the performance-to-price ratio, the better. We use the manufacturer's recommended prices for comparison.

Detailed specifications

GeForce GTX 950's specs such as number of shaders, GPU base clock, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of GeForce GTX 950's performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider its benchmark and gaming test results.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	768	of 21760 (GeForce RTX 5090)
Core clock speed	1024 MHz	of 2670 MHz (Arc B580)
Boost clock speed	1188 MHz	of 3599 MHz (Radeon RX 7990 XTX)
Number of transistors	2,940 million	of 208,000 million (B200 SXM 192 GB)
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	of 3 nm (Arc Graphics 140V)
Power consumption (TDP)	90 Watt	of 2400 Watt (Data Center GPU Max Subsystem)
Texture fill rate	57.02	of 2,554 (Radeon Instinct MI300X)
Floating-point processing power	1.825 TFLOPS	of 104.8 (GeForce RTX 5090)
ROPs	32	of 512 (Moore Threads MTT S4000)
TMUs	48	of 1280 (Data Center GPU Max NEXT)

Form factor & compatibility

This section provides details about the physical dimensions of GeForce GTX 950 and its compatibility with other computer components. This information is useful when selecting a computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards, it includes details about the interface and bus (for motherboard compatibility) and additional power connectors (for power supply compatibility).

Bus support	PCI Express 3.0
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16
Length	202 mm
Height	4.376" (11.1 cm)
Width	2-slot
Recommended system power (PSU)	350 Watt
Supplementary power connectors	1x 6-pin
SLI options	+

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of memory installed on GeForce GTX 950: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Note that GPUs integrated into processors have no dedicated memory and use a shared part of system RAM instead.

Memory type	GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	of 288 GB (Radeon Instinct MI325X)
Memory bus width	128 Bit	of 8192 Bit (Radeon Instinct MI250X)
Memory clock speed	6.6 GB/s	of 20000 (RTX 5000 Ada Generation Mobile)
Memory bandwidth	105.6 GB/s	of 5,171 GB/s (Radeon Instinct MI300X)
Shared memory	-

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on GeForce GTX 950. As a rule, this section is relevant only for desktop reference graphics cards, since for notebook ones the availability of certain video outputs depends on the laptop model, while non-reference desktop models can (though not necessarily will) bear a different set of video ports.

Display Connectors	Dual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2
Multi monitor support	4 displays
HDMI	+
HDCP	+
Maximum VGA resolution	2048x1536
G-SYNC support	+
Audio input for HDMI	Internal

Supported technologies

Technological solutions and APIs supported by GeForce GTX 950. You'll probably need this information if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

GameStream	+
GeForce ShadowPlay	+
GPU Boost	2.0
GameWorks	+

API and SDK compatibility

APIs supported by GeForce GTX 950, sometimes including their particular versions.

DirectX	12 (12_1)
Shader Model	6.4
OpenGL	4.5	of 4.6 (GeForce RTX 4090)
OpenCL	1.2
Vulkan	1.1.126
CUDA	+

Benchmark performance

Synthetic benchmark performance of GeForce GTX 950. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark score.

GTX 950 13.90

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

GTX 950 5344

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

GTX 950 8351

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

GTX 950 6208

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

Cloud Gate is an outdated DirectX 11 feature level 10 benchmark that was used for home PCs and basic notebooks. It displays a few scenes of some weird space teleportation device launching spaceships into unknown, using fixed resolution of 1280x720. Just like Ice Storm benchmark, it has been discontinued in January 2020 and replaced by 3DMark Night Raid.

GTX 950 37454

GeekBench 5 OpenCL

Geekbench 5 is a widespread graphics card benchmark combined from 11 different test scenarios. All these scenarios rely on direct usage of GPU's processing power, no 3D rendering is involved. This variation uses OpenCL API by Khronos Group.

GTX 950 16715

GeekBench 5 Vulkan

GTX 950 15899

GeekBench 5 CUDA

GTX 950 15806

Octane Render OctaneBench

This is a special benchmark measuring graphics card performance in OctaneRender, which is a realistic GPU rendering engine by OTOY Inc., available either as a standalone program, or as a plugin for 3DS Max, Cinema 4D and many other apps. It renders four different static scenes, then compares render times with a reference GPU which is currently GeForce GTX 980. This benchmark has nothing to do with gaming and is aimed at professional 3D graphics artists.

GTX 950 41

Gaming performance

Let's see how good GeForce GTX 950 is for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in frames per second. Comparisons with game system requirements are included, but remember that sometimes official requirements may reflect reality inaccurately.

Average FPS across all PC games

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

Full HD	52
4K	22

Cost per frame, $

1080p	3.06
4K	7.23

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Atomic Heart	30−35
Counter-Strike 2	21−24
Cyberpunk 2077	27−30

Full HD
Medium Preset

Atomic Heart	30−35
Battlefield 5	55−60
Counter-Strike 2	21−24
Cyberpunk 2077	27−30
Far Cry 5	40−45
Fortnite	75−80
Forza Horizon 4	55−60
Forza Horizon 5	35−40
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	45−50
Valorant	110−120

Full HD
High Preset

Atomic Heart	30−35
Battlefield 5	55−60
Counter-Strike 2	21−24
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive	180−190
Cyberpunk 2077	27−30
Dota 2	85−90
Far Cry 5	40−45
Fortnite	75−80
Forza Horizon 4	55−60
Forza Horizon 5	35−40
Grand Theft Auto V	37
Metro Exodus	27−30
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	45−50
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	38
Valorant	110−120

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	55−60
Counter-Strike 2	21−24
Cyberpunk 2077	27−30
Dota 2	85−90
Far Cry 5	40−45
Forza Horizon 4	55−60
Forza Horizon 5	35−40
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	45−50
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	21
Valorant	110−120

Full HD
Epic Preset

Fortnite

75−80

1440p
High Preset

Counter-Strike 2	14−16
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive	95−100
Grand Theft Auto V	20−22
Metro Exodus	16−18
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	110−120
Valorant	130−140

1440p
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	35−40
Cyberpunk 2077	10−12
Far Cry 5	27−30
Forza Horizon 4	30−35
Forza Horizon 5	21−24
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	20−22

1440p
Epic Preset

Fortnite

27−30

4K
High Preset

Atomic Heart	10−11
Counter-Strike 2	6−7
Grand Theft Auto V	28
Metro Exodus	9−10
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	13
Valorant	70−75

4K
Ultra Preset

Battlefield 5	18−20
Counter-Strike 2	6−7
Cyberpunk 2077	5−6
Dota 2	45−50
Far Cry 5	14−16
Forza Horizon 4	21−24
Forza Horizon 5	10−12
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS	12−14

4K
Epic Preset

Fortnite

12−14

Closest competitors

GeForce GTX 950's performance relative to its closest rivals among desktop graphics cards.

GeForce GTX 690 102.73

Arc A310 102.3

GeForce GTX 760 Ti OEM 101.58

GeForce GTX 950 100

GeForce GTX 670 99.78

Radeon HD 7970 98.2

GeForce GTX 1050 3 GB 94.6

AMD equivalent

According to our data, the closest AMD alternative to GeForce GTX 950 is Radeon HD 7970, which is slower by 2% and lower by 7 positions in our ranking.