GeForce GTX 950: specs and benchmarks

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Aggregate performance score

GeForce GTX 950 provides acceptable gaming and benchmark performance at 13.85% of a leader's which is GeForce RTX 4090.

Summary

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 ranking376
Place by popularitynot in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation8.75
Power efficiency10.55of 100.00 (Radeon 890M)
ArchitectureMaxwell 2.0 (2014−2019)
GPU code nameGM206
Market segmentDesktop
Release date20 August 2015 (9 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$159 of 14,999 (Quadro Plex 7000)

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

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 cores768of 21760 (GeForce RTX 5090)
Core clock speed1024 MHzof 2670 MHz (Arc B580)
Boost clock speed1188 MHzof 3599 MHz (Radeon RX 7990 XTX)
Number of transistors2,940 millionof 208,000 million (B200 SXM 192 GB)
Manufacturing process technology28 nmof 3 nm (Arc Graphics 140V)
Power consumption (TDP)90 Wattof 2400 Watt (Data Center GPU Max Subsystem)
Texture fill rate57.02of 2,554 (Radeon Instinct MI300X)
Floating-point processing power1.825 TFLOPSof 109.7 (GeForce RTX 5090)
ROPs32of 192 (Radeon RX 7900 XTX)
TMUs48of 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 supportPCI Express 3.0
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16
Length202 mm
Height4.376" (11.1 cm)
Width2-slot
Recommended system power (PSU)350 Watt
Supplementary power connectors1x 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 typeGDDR5
Maximum RAM amount2 GBof 294912 (Radeon Instinct MI325X)
Memory bus width128 Bitof 8192 Bit (Radeon Instinct MI250X)
Memory clock speed6.6 GB/sof 20000 (RTX 5000 Ada Generation Mobile)
Memory bandwidth105.6 GB/sof 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 ConnectorsDual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2
Multi monitor support4 displays
HDMI+
HDCP+
Maximum VGA resolution2048x1536
G-SYNC support+
Audio input for HDMIInternal

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 Boost2.0
GameWorks+

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 (12_1)
Shader Model6.4
OpenGL4.5of 4.6 (GeForce RTX 4090)
OpenCL1.2
Vulkan1.1.126
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. 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.

GTX 950 13.85

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 5337

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

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 Vulkan API by AMD & Khronos Group.

GTX 950 15899

GeekBench 5 CUDA

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 CUDA API by NVIDIA.

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 HD50
4K21

Cost per frame, $

1080p3.18
4K7.57

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 21−24

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 30−35
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 21−24
Battlefield 5 45−50
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 27−30
Cyberpunk 2077 21−24
Far Cry 5 30−35
Far Cry New Dawn 35−40
Forza Horizon 4 90−95
Hitman 3 24−27
Horizon Zero Dawn 70−75
Metro Exodus 45−50
Red Dead Redemption 2 35−40
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 45−50
Watch Dogs: Legion 75−80

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 30−35
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 21−24
Battlefield 5 45−50
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 27−30
Cyberpunk 2077 21−24
Far Cry 5 30−35
Far Cry New Dawn 35−40
Forza Horizon 4 90−95
Hitman 3 24−27
Horizon Zero Dawn 70−75
Metro Exodus 45−50
Red Dead Redemption 2 35−40
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 45−50
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 108
Watch Dogs: Legion 75−80

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 30−35
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 21−24
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 27−30
Cyberpunk 2077 21−24
Far Cry 5 30−35
Forza Horizon 4 90−95
Hitman 3 24−27
Horizon Zero Dawn 70−75
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 45−50
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 21
Watch Dogs: Legion 75−80

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 35−40

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 27−30
Far Cry New Dawn 21−24

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 14−16
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 10−12
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 14−16
Cyberpunk 2077 7−8
Far Cry 5 16−18
Forza Horizon 4 70−75
Hitman 3 16−18
Horizon Zero Dawn 27−30
Metro Exodus 24−27
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 24−27
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 14−16
Watch Dogs: Legion 85−90

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 21−24

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 12−14
Far Cry New Dawn 10−11
Hitman 3 10−11
Horizon Zero Dawn 65−70
Metro Exodus 12−14
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 13

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 8−9
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 6−7
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 7−8
Cyberpunk 2077 2−3
Far Cry 5 7−8
Forza Horizon 4 18−20
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 12−14
Watch Dogs: Legion 5−6

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 12−14

Closest competitors

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


Arc A310 103.1
GeForce GTX 950 100

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 4 positions in our ranking.

Here are some closest AMD rivals to GeForce GTX 950:

Radeon R9 280 104.12
GeForce GTX 950 100

Similar GPUs

Here is our recommendation of several graphics cards that are more or less close in performance to the one reviewed.

Recommended processors

These processors are most commonly used with GeForce GTX 950 according to our statistics.

All comparisons with GeForce GTX 950

Community ratings

Here you can see the user rating of the graphics card, as well as rate it yourself.


4 2118 votes

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Questions & comments

Here you can ask a question about GeForce GTX 950, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.