GeForce FX 5900 vs GTX 970

Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the ranking	214	not rated
Place by popularity	57	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	13.64	no data
Power efficiency	11.76	no data
Architecture	Maxwell 2.0 (2014−2019)	Rankine (2003−2005)
GPU code name	GM204	NV35
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	19 September 2014 (10 years ago)	12 May 2003 (21 year ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$329	$399

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

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	1664	no data
Core clock speed	1050 MHz	400 MHz
Boost clock speed	1178 MHz	no data
Number of transistors	5,200 million	135 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	130 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	148 Watt	no data
Maximum GPU temperature	98 °C	no data
Texture fill rate	122.5	3.200
Floating-point processing power	3.92 TFLOPS	no data
ROPs	56	4
TMUs	104	8

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).

Bus support	PCI Express 3.0	no data
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	AGP 8x
Length	267 mm	218 mm
Height	4.376" (11.1 cm)	no data
Width	2-slot	1-slot
Recommended system power (PSU)	500 Watt	no data
Supplementary power connectors	2x 6-pin	1x Molex
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	GDDR5	DDR
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	128 MB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	7.0 GB/s	425 MHz
Memory bandwidth	224 GB/s	27.2 GB/s
Shared memory	-	no data

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	Dual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2	1x DVI, 1x VGA, 1x S-Video
Multi monitor support	4 displays	no data
HDMI	+	-
HDCP	+	-
Maximum VGA resolution	2048x1536	no data
G-SYNC support	+	-
Audio input for HDMI	Internal	no data

Supported technologies

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

GameStream	+	-
GeForce ShadowPlay	+	-
GPU Boost	2.0	no data
GameWorks	+	-

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (12_1)	9.0a
Shader Model	6.4	no data
OpenGL	4.4	1.5 (2.1)
OpenCL	1.2	N/A
Vulkan	1.1.126	N/A
CUDA	+	-

Synthetic benchmark performance

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

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Pros & cons summary

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Recency	19 September 2014	12 May 2003
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	128 MB
Chip lithography	28 nm	130 nm

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Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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