Radeon RX 6950 XT vs GeForce GTX 970M SLI

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SLI
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Aggregate performance score

We've compared GeForce GTX 970M SLI with Radeon RX 6950 XT, including specs and performance data.

GTX 970M SLI
2014
2x 6 GB GDDR5, 162 Watt
24.35

RX 6950 XT outperforms GTX 970M SLI by a whopping 201% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in performance ranking20914
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation7.2122.76
ArchitectureMaxwell (2014−2018)Navi / RDNA2 (2020−2022)
GPU code nameno dataNavi
Market segmentLaptopDesktop
Release date7 October 2014 (9 years ago)10 May 2022 (2 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)no data$1,099
Current price$1326 $961 (0.9x MSRP)

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

RX 6950 XT has 216% better value for money than GTX 970M SLI.

Detailed specifications

General performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider their benchmark and gaming test results. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores25605120
Core clock speed924 MHz1925 MHz
Boost clock speed1038 MHz2324 MHz
Number of transistors2x 5200 Million26,800 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)162 Watt335 Watt
Texture fill rateno data743.7

Form factor & compatibility

Information on GeForce GTX 970M SLI and Radeon RX 6950 XT compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop video cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility). For notebook video cards it's notebook size, connection slot and bus, if the video card is inserted into a slot instead of being soldered to the notebook motherboard.

Laptop sizelargeno data
Interfaceno dataPCIe 4.0 x16
Lengthno data267 mm
Widthno data3-slot
Supplementary power connectorsno data2x 8-pin
SLI options+no data

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 typeGDDR5GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount2x 6 GB16 GB
Memory bus width2x 192 Bit256 Bit
Memory clock speed5000 MHz18000 MHz
Memory bandwidthno data576.0 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 Connectorsno data1x HDMI 2.1, 2x DisplayPort 1.4a
HDMIno data+

Supported technologies

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

Optimus+no data

API compatibility

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

DirectX12_112 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Modelno data6.5
OpenGLno data4.6
OpenCLno data2.1
Vulkanno data1.3
CUDA+no data

Synthetic benchmark performance

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


Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance 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 970M SLI 24.35
RX 6950 XT 73.28
+201%

Radeon RX 6950 XT outperforms GeForce GTX 970M SLI by 201% based on our aggregate benchmark results.


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.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

GTX 970M SLI 18870
RX 6950 XT 72228
+283%

Radeon RX 6950 XT outperforms GeForce GTX 970M SLI by 283% in 3DMark 11 Performance GPU.

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

GTX 970M SLI 36119
RX 6950 XT 119918
+232%

Radeon RX 6950 XT outperforms GeForce GTX 970M SLI by 232% in 3DMark Vantage Performance.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

GTX 970M SLI 14760
RX 6950 XT 59882
+306%

Radeon RX 6950 XT outperforms GeForce GTX 970M SLI by 306% in 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

GTX 970M SLI 96944
RX 6950 XT 229172
+136%

Radeon RX 6950 XT outperforms GeForce GTX 970M SLI by 136% in 3DMark Cloud Gate GPU.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 8%

GTX 970M SLI 256573
RX 6950 XT 497297
+93.8%

Radeon RX 6950 XT outperforms GeForce GTX 970M SLI by 94% in 3DMark Ice Storm GPU.

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:

Full HD87
−146%
214
+146%
1440p40−45
−238%
135
+238%
4K40
−115%
86
+115%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 40−45 no data

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 45−50 no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 40−45 no data
Battlefield 5 80−85 no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 50−55 no data
Cyberpunk 2077 40−45 no data
Far Cry 5 55−60 no data
Far Cry New Dawn 60−65 no data
Forza Horizon 4 100−110 no data
Hitman 3 45−50 no data
Horizon Zero Dawn 95−100 no data
Metro Exodus 75−80 no data
Red Dead Redemption 2 65−70 no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 80−85 no data
Watch Dogs: Legion 65−70 no data

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 45−50 no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 40−45 no data
Battlefield 5 80−85 no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 50−55 no data
Cyberpunk 2077 40−45 no data
Far Cry 5 55−60 no data
Far Cry New Dawn 60−65 no data
Forza Horizon 4 100−110 no data
Hitman 3 45−50 no data
Horizon Zero Dawn 95−100 no data
Metro Exodus 75−80 no data
Red Dead Redemption 2 65−70 no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 80−85 no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 85 no data
Watch Dogs: Legion 65−70 no data

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 45−50 no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 40−45 no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 50−55 no data
Cyberpunk 2077 40−45 no data
Far Cry 5 55−60 no data
Forza Horizon 4 100−110 no data
Horizon Zero Dawn 95−100 no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 80−85 no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 48 no data
Watch Dogs: Legion 65−70 no data

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 65−70 no data

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 45−50 no data
Far Cry New Dawn 50−55 no data

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 24−27 no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 24−27 no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 30−35 no data
Cyberpunk 2077 14−16 no data
Far Cry 5 40−45 no data
Forza Horizon 4 45−50 no data
Hitman 3 27−30 no data
Horizon Zero Dawn 50−55 no data
Metro Exodus 45−50 no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 50−55 no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 30−33 no data
Watch Dogs: Legion 18−20 no data

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 40−45 no data

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 24−27 no data
Far Cry New Dawn 18−20 no data
Hitman 3 18−20 no data
Horizon Zero Dawn 27−30 no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 16−18 no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 28 no data

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 14−16 no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 12−14 no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 14−16 no data
Cyberpunk 2077 6−7 no data
Far Cry 5 12−14 no data
Forza Horizon 4 30−35 no data
Horizon Zero Dawn 27−30 no data
Metro Exodus 21−24 no data
Watch Dogs: Legion 10−12 no data

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 21−24 no data

This is how GTX 970M SLI and RX 6950 XT compete in popular games:

  • RX 6950 XT is 146% faster in 1080p
  • RX 6950 XT is 238% faster in 1440p
  • RX 6950 XT is 115% faster in 4K

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 24.35 73.28
Recency 7 October 2014 10 May 2022
Chip lithography 28 nm 7 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 162 Watt 335 Watt

The Radeon RX 6950 XT is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GTX 970M SLI in performance tests.

Be aware that GeForce GTX 970M SLI is a notebook card while Radeon RX 6950 XT is a desktop one.


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

Vote for your favorite

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite graphics card.


NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M SLI
GeForce GTX 970M SLI
AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT
Radeon RX 6950 XT

Comparisons with similar GPUs

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Community ratings

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


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Questions & comments

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